sputter
/ˈspʌtə
/verb
1 [no object] Make a series of soft explosive or spitting sounds: the engine sputtered and stopped...
- The engine sputtered and smoked and eventually stopped.
- The walls danced with red ochre light as the flame sputtered and spat.
- The enemy plane, its engine sputtering, lost altitude and turned back toward Pola.
1.1 [reporting verb] Speak in a series of incoherent bursts as a result of strong emotion: [with direct speech]: ‘But ... but ...’ she sputtered...
- I turned red and sputtered something incoherent.
- Her mouth opened in indignation as she sputtered incoherent, half-formed words.
- Yeah, for now, I'm angry enough that I can barely sputter, never mind speak or write coherently.
1.2 [with object] Emit with a spitting sound: the goose is in the oven, sputtering fat...
- The shower head began to spit and sputter out hot water.
1.3 [with adverbial] Proceed in a spasmodic and feeble way: strikes in the public services sputtered on...
- The Fed has already cut rates seven times this year, by a total of three full percentage points, to try to reignite sputtering economic growth.
- The bubble burst late last year as the economy started sputtering, and now about 10 per cent of credit card debt is more than one month overdue in Asia's fourth-largest economy.
- Defeated in Lombardy, the revolution sputtered on in Venice, Tuscany, Rome, and Sicily.
2 [with object] Physics Deposit (metal) on a surface by using fast ions to eject particles of it from a target.We prepared the filters for SEM analysis by sputtering a thin gold film on them....
- Thin layers of chromium and gold were sequentially sputtered on the substrates using the following procedure.
- Motorola uses the same machinery to deposit the magnetic maternal as that used to sputter the magnetic oxide on to disk drive platters.
2.1Coat (a surface) with a spray of metal particles emitted from a target that is bombarded with fast ions.Some amber pieces were sputtered with carbon for this treatment and filaments of several amber pieces were scanned....
- After critical point drying samples were sputtered with gold and investigated in a Zeiss DSM 962 scanning electron microscope.
noun
A series of soft explosive or spitting sounds: the sputter of the motor died away...
- They spoke little, each of them thinking his own thoughts, but it was a companionable silence, punctuated by the sputter and crackle of the fire.
- Now I could hear the sputter of machine gun fire; the booms and screeches of torpedoes.
- Inside the building, Paul Meyer and his two young colleagues listened to the sputters of a cheap diesel generator.
Derivatives
sputterer
- In addition, there are a range of metal evaporators, sputterers and reactive ion etching equipment.
- This sputterer has RF and DC sources which allow it sputter metallic and dielectric materials.
Origin
Late 16th century (as a verb): from Dutch sputteren, of imitative origin.