splatter

plural splatters

1. countableuncountableAn uneven shape or mess created by something dispersing on impact.

   He had a hard time cleaning up the paint splatters on the carpet.

2. attributiveuncountablebroadcastingA genre of gory horror.

   splatter film; splatter movie

3. uncountablebroadcastingSpurious emissions resulting from an abrupt change in a transmitted radio signal.

present singular third person splatters · participle present splattering · participle past splattered · past splattered

1. intransitiveTo splash; to scatter; to land or strike in an uneven, distributed mess.

   The drink splattered all over me, the table, and the floor when I knocked it over.

2. transitiveTo cause (something) to splatter.

   He splattered paint onto the wall.

3. transitiveTo spatter (something or somebody).

   Her wet hands […] splattered him with suds.

   2012, Kimberly J. Heide, Doors of Promise, page 100

   1 more example

   The farmer whose land the Pratincole had chosen to frequent had such an adversion to birders that he had been thundering up and down all day in a high-powered muck-spreader, splattering them with cow dung!

   1983, Bill Oddie, Gone Birding, London: Methuen, page 59