scatter
//ˈskætə//
Forms
- present (v1)
- scatter
- past (v2)
- scattered
- past participle (v3)
- scattered
- present participle
- scattering
- 3rd person singular
- scatters
- Plural
- scatters
Definitions
1.To (cause to) separate and go in different directions; to disperse.
- Scatter and disperse the giddy Goths.
- The crowd scattered in terror.
2.To distribute loosely as by sprinkling.
- Her ashes were scattered at the top of a waterfall.
- Why should my muse enlarge on Libyan swains, / Their scattered cottages, and ample plains?
3.To deflect (radiation or particles).
4.To occur or fall at widely spaced intervals.
1.A collection of dispersed objects.
- The Los Angeles Basin evolved as a mobility surface principally through the combination of an initial system of electric railways connecting a scatter of agricultural settlement settlements.
- A broad scatter of kurgan graves in the steppes contained imported Tripolye C2 pots (among other imported pot types) and a few, like Serezlievka, also contained Tripolye-like schematic rod-headed figurines.
2.The act of scattering or dispersing.
Frequency
Overall
Rare· #4658
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Rare
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Etymology
From Middle English scateren, skateren, also schateren, * probably a variant of shatter, which is imitative; * or from Old English *sceaterian, probably akin to a dialect of Old Norse, possibly ultimately related to Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to cut, split, shatter”).