sputter
IPA: spˈʌtɝ
noun
- Moist matter thrown out in small detached particles.
- Confused and hasty speech.
verb
- (intransitive) To emit saliva or spit from the mouth in small, scattered portions, as in rapid speaking.
- (transitive, intransitive) To speak so rapidly as to emit saliva; to utter words hastily and indistinctly, with a spluttering sound, as in rage.
- (transitive, intransitive) To throw out anything, as little jets of steam, with a noise like that made by one sputtering.
- (physics, intransitive) To cause surface atoms or electrons of a solid to be ejected by bombarding it with heavy atoms or ions.
- (physics, transitive) To coat the surface of an object by sputtering.
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Examples of "sputter" in Sentences
- T's growth will "sputter" without the iPhone as a guaranteed draw, says Moffett.
- AT&T's growth will "sputter" without the iPhone as a guaranteed draw, says Moffett.
- This makes them 'sputter' with rage, which in turn leads to overreaction and self-destruction. "
- We had some good drives, but then we'd get down to the red zone and kind of sputter out, '' Carr said.
- Knowing the poor Irish girl's weak side (her quick temper), Oscar had for some time taxed his ingenuity to torment her, for the sake of hearing her "sputter," as he termed it.
- Sputter deposition is an industrial process used since the 1970s to spray -- sputter, that is -- thin films onto various backings, like the metallic coating on potato chip bags, the reflective surface on DVDs, or the electronics on computer chips.
- If you ask the president how he's changed, he'd probably "do one of those man noises - kind of sputter - and shrug his shoulders," said Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, his former top domestic policy adviser and an old friend from Texas.
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