scatteredadj.

a1425 (c1395) Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Royal) (1850) Jer. l. 17 Israel is a scaterid flok.

1595 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 3 ii. vi. 93 And hauing France thy friend thou needst not dread, The scattered foe that hopes to rise againe.

1786 R. Burns Poems & Songs (1968) I. 291 The Hunter now has left the moor, The scatt'red coveys meet secure.

1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. xx. 412 From the field of battle he made his way..to the neighbourhood of Louvain, and there began to collect his scattered forces.

1638 F. Junius Painting of Ancients 26 It doth require..some labour to settle our wild scattered thoughts.

1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost xi. 294 Adam..his scatterd spirits returnd, To Michael thus his humble words addressd. View more context for this quotation

1819 W. Scott Ivanhoe III. xiv. 352 One word from Isaac..recalled her scattered feelings.

1595 Polimanteia in Brydges Brit. Bibl. I. 281 Mourne for the trulie Hon. Ferdinandos death: whom though scattered teares haue honoured in some few sonnets, yet [etc.].

1617 F. Moryson Itinerary i. 112 Having passed long suburbs and scattered houses we came within a Musket shot to the mountaine.

1715 T. Parnell Ess. Homer 18 in A. Pope tr. Homer Iliad I Some other scatter'd Stories of Homer.

1793 R. Burns Poems (ed. 2) II. 189 Ye scatter'd birds that faintly sing.

1828 W. Scott Fair Maid of Perth iv, in Chron. Canongate 2nd Ser. III. 77 A few aged and scattered yew trees.

1845 G. Budd On Dis. Liver 175 Ulceration of the gall-bladder..may lead to scattered abscesses in the substance of the liver.

1897 Westm. Gaz. 11 Mar. 2/1 The Poor-law Conference..showed a remarkable consensus of opinion in favour of the substitution of the boarding-out and scattered home system for the present barrack schools.

1956 Jrnl. Housing May 163/1 (heading) Scattered site projects.

1956 Jrnl. Housing May 163/1 ‘We have inaugurated a new policy that not only permits but encourages the use of small scattered sites,’ PHA Commissioner Charles E. Slusser told delegates.

1958 Jrnl. Housing Jan. 11 (caption) Diagrammatical sketch of the City of Cedartown, showing the seven sites on which the Cedartown Housing Authority constructed..the first scattered-site project in the nation.

1959 Jrnl. Housing Nov. 359/2 In many areas the row house has been adapted for scattered-site use.

1966 Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 12 Aug. 10/1 ‘Scattered-site’ housing is an alternative to high-rise, low-income apartments.

1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost i. 304 His Legions..lay..Thick as..scatterd sedge Afloat, when with fierce Winds Orion arm'd Hath vext the Red-Sea Coast. View more context for this quotation

1785 W. Cowper Task iv. 121 Oh Winter, ruler of th' inverted year, Thy scatter'd hair with sleet like ashes fill'd..I love thee!

1785 W. Cowper Task v. 67 The sparrows peep... Well they eye The scatter'd grain.

1839 W. Gowans Abercrombie's Every Man his Own Gardener (rev. ed.) 40 Let grass be rolled with a wooden roller, to which all the scattered worm-cast earth will readily adhere.

1596 E. Spenser Second Pt. Faerie Queene v. ii. sig. N2^v Whom hauing lost,..And finding in the way the scattred scarfe, The fortune of her life long time did feare. View more context for this quotation

a1616 W. Shakespeare As you like It (1623) iii. v. 105 Loose now and then A scattred smile, and that Ile liue vpon. View more context for this quotation

1781 W. Cowper Table Talk 674 [He], like a scatter'd seed at random sown, Was left to spring by vigour of his own.

1640 J. Parkinson Theatrum Botanicum 283 Sometimes also growing scatteredly on the stalks.]

1796 W. Withering Arrangem. Brit. Plants (ed. 3) I. 225 Cal. none, (except some scattered sheaths).

1796 W. Withering Arrangem. Brit. Plants (ed. 3) III. 176 Root-leaves on leaf-stalks, somewhat toothed, beset with scattered hairs.

1839 J. Lindley Introd. Bot. (ed. 3) iii. 492 Scattered (sparsus); used in opposition to whorled, or opposite, or ternate, or other such terms.

1872 H. C. Wood Contrib. Hist. Freshwater Algæ 54 Filament single, mostly scattered.

1826 W. Kirby & W. Spence Introd. Entomol. IV. 313 Scattered (Sparsi). When simple eyes are separate from each other and not arranged in a certain order.

1808 W. Herschel in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 99 280 The [prismatic] bows are formed by scattered light.

1878 W. de W. Abney Treat. Photogr. xii. 88 The blurring caused by the reflection of the scattered rays from the plate.

1878 Ld. Rayleigh Theory of Sound II. xv. 139 If a number of small bodies lie in the path of waves of sound,..the exaltation of the higher harmonics in the scattered waves involves a proportional deficiency of them in the direct wave after passing the obstacles.

1906 London, Edinb. & Dublin Philos. Mag. 6th Ser. 12 144 From measurements of the width of the band due to the scattered α rays, it is easy to show that some of the α rays in passing through the mica have been deflected from their course through an angle of about 2°.

1926 R. W. Lawson tr. G. von Hevesy & F. A. Paneth Man. Radioactivity iii. 39 The whole of the scattered radiation also enters the electroscope.

1966 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. (rev. ed.) XIII. 438/2 Although radio waves at these frequencies are not reflected by the ionosphere, it has been found that if large amounts of power are radiated, scattered energy will be received over relatively long distances beyond the horizon.

1970 I. E. McCarthy Nuclear Reactions i. 5 In addition to elastically scattered α particles, two groups of protons..were observed.

1978 P. W. Atkins Physical Chem. xvii. 546 If the molecules are excited by the light during the collision they withdraw some energy from the photons, and so the scattered light emerges with a lower frequency than the incident light.