Word forms: 3rd person singular presenttense sputters, present participle sputtering, past tense, past participle sputtered
1. verb
If something such as an engine or a flame sputters, it works or burns in an uneven way and makes a series of soft popping sounds.
The truck sputtered and stopped. [VERB]
Engines sputtered to life again. [VERB preposition/adverb]
The flame sputters out. [VERB preposition/adverb]
...the sputtering engine. [VERB-ing]
Sputter is also a noun.
All I could hear was the sputter of the fire.
2. verb
If a process, action, or state of affairs sputters, it progresses slowly and unevenly or starts to end.
The economy is already sputtering, with low or no growth. [VERB]
The battle sputtered to a halt in mid-October. [VERB preposition/adverb]
The whole thing sputtered out. [VERB preposition/adverb]
3. verb
If you sputter, you speak with difficulty and make short sounds, especially because you are angry, shocked, or excited.
Stunned, I sputtered, 'What do you mean?'. [VERB with quote]
Our father's face had reddened with rage and he began to sputter. [VERB]
He began to sputter his reply. [VERB noun]
sputter in British English
(ˈspʌtə)
verb
1. another word for splutter (sense 1), splutter (sense 2), splutter (sense 3)
2. physics
a.
to undergo or cause to undergo a process in which atoms of a solid are removed from its surface by the impact of high-energy ions, as in a discharge tube
b.
to coat (a film of a metal) onto (a solid surface) by using this process
noun
3.
the process or noise of sputtering
4.
incoherent stammering speech
5.
something that is ejected while sputtering
Derived forms
sputterer (ˈsputterer)
noun
Word origin
C16: from Dutch sputteren, of imitative origin
sputter in American English
(ˈspʌtər)
verb intransitive
1.
to spit out drops of saliva, bits of food, etc. in an explosive manner, as when talking excitedly; splutter
2.
to speak hastily in a confused, explosive manner
3.
to make sharp, sizzling or spitting sounds, as burning wood, frying fat, etc.
verb transitive
4.
to spit or throw out (bits or drops) in an explosive manner
5.
to utter by sputtering
noun
6.
the act or noise of sputtering
7.
matter thrown out in sputtering
8.
hasty, confused, explosive utterance
Word origin
Du sputteren, freq. < MDu spotten, to spit: for base see spew
Examples of 'sputter' in a sentence
sputter
But for you to leap from there to the assumption that---that I'm--- "His voice trailed off into an incoherent sputter.