SPUTTERING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sputtering mean? 

• SPUTTERING (noun)
  The noun SPUTTERING has 1 sense:

1. the noise of something spattering or sputtering explosively

  Familiarity information: SPUTTERING used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SPUTTERING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The noise of something spattering or sputtering explosively

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

spatter; spattering; splatter; splattering; splutter; sputter; sputtering

Context example:

he heard a spatter of gunfire

Hypernyms ("sputtering" is a kind of...):

noise (sound of any kind (especially unintelligible or dissonant sound))

Derivation:

sputter (make an explosive sound)

 Context examples 

Because more charged particles would be created, there also would be more sputtering, another form of atmospheric loss.

(Mars Mission Sheds Light on Habitability of Distant Planets, NASA)

A very cheerful wood-fire was sputtering and cracking in an open grate at the further end of the apartment.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A mass spectrometry technique in which a solid sample is atomized and ionized by sputtering in low-pressure direct-current plasma prior to the separation and detection of the ions in a mass analyzer.

(Glow Discharge Mass Spectrometry, NCI Thesaurus)

When we had slices enough done to begin upon, we fell-to, with our sleeves still tucked up at the wrist, more slices sputtering and blazing on the fire, and our attention divided between the mutton on our plates, and the mutton then preparing.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The sputtering wood fire threw out a circle of red flickering light which played over the little group of wayfarers, and showed up every line and shadow upon their faces.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Sputtering happens when energetic particles are accelerated into the atmosphere and knock molecules around, kicking some of them out into space and sending others crashing into their neighbors, the way a cue ball does in a game of pool.

(Mars Mission Sheds Light on Habitability of Distant Planets, NASA)

I smell the fog that hung about the place; I see the hoar frost, ghostly, through it; I feel my rimy hair fall clammy on my cheek; I look along the dim perspective of the schoolroom, with a sputtering candle here and there to light up the foggy morning, and the breath of the boys wreathing and smoking in the raw cold as they blow upon their fingers, and tap their feet upon the floor.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)