bespatter

English

Etymology

From be- + spatter.

Verb

bespatter (third-person singular simple present bespatters, present participle bespattering, simple past and past participle bespattered)

  1. (transitive) To spatter or cover with something; sprinkle with anything liquid, or with any wet or adhesive substance.
  2. (transitive) To soil by spattering.
    • 1902, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Bush Studies (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 15:
      The flour bespattering Squeaker's now neglected clothes spoke eloquently of his clumsy efforts at damper making.
    • 1927 May, Virginia Woolf, chapter 6, in To the Lighthouse (Uniform Edition of the Works of Virginia Woolf), new edition, London: Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, [], published 1930, →OCLC, part I (The Window), page 54:
      [D]azed and blinded, she bent her head as if to let the pelt of jagged hail, the drench of dirty water, bespatter her unrebuked.
  3. (transitive, figuratively) To asperse with calumny or reproach; shend.

Derived terms

Translations

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