1866 B. Stewart Heat §189. 172 As in the case of light.., so also with regard to heat there is a diffuse reflection or scattering about of the rays.

1911 Mem. & Proc. Manch. Literary & Philos. Soc. 55 p. xviii (heading) The scattering of the α and β rays and the structure of the atom.

1942 J. D. Stranathan ‘Particles’ of Mod. Physics xi. 405 On the theory of multiple scattering an entirely negligible number of particles should be scattered at large angles.

1950 Nature 30 Dec. 1103/2 It is..probable that turbulent scattering..plays an important part in determining the signals received from high-power metre~wave transmitters at distances greater than about 100 miles.

1955 T. F. Hueter & R. H. Bolt Sonics iii. 85 Scattering at the grain boundaries is one important cause for the absorption of ultrasonic waves in metals.

1974 G. Reece tr. F. Hund Hist. Quantum Theory iv. 56 In 1903 J. J. Thomson worked out from the intensity of scattering of X-rays that the number of electrons must be roughly equal to the atomic weight.

1975 D. G. Fink Electronics Engineers' Handbk. xviii. 91 At frequencies in the 30- to 100-MHz region, regular but weak propagation by ionospheric scattering is obtained.

a1340 R. Rolle Psalter cxlvi. 2 Dispersiones israelis congregabit... Þe scatiryngis of israel he sall gadire.

1546 Supplic. Poor Commons sig. b.i They..must leaue the latwarde fruite with the scaterynge of theyr corne for the poore to gather.

a1662 P. Heylyn Cyprianus Angl. (1671) i. 156 Which alone will be able to bind up the scatterings of divided affections into strength.

1694 R. South 12 Serm. II. 517 The former Instances of Temporal Prosperity, which are but (as it were) the promiscuous Scatterings of his Common Providence.

1747 W. Gould Acct. Eng. Ants 36 A white Substance, not altogether unlike the Scatterings of fine Sugar.

1908 Betw. Trent & Axeholme 107 On the grass..lies a thick scattering of petals.

1628 J. Earle Micro-cosmogr. xxxiii. sig. F11^v He has his sentences for Company, some scatterings of Seneca and Tacitus.

1690 C. Ness Compl. Hist. & Myst. Old & New Test. I. 180 The gentile world wherein God had some scatterings of holy ones.

1896 Strand Mag. 12 348/1 There is a scattering of Europeans among the divers.

c1450 Brut i. 191 Thus staterand [? read scaterand] Scottes, holde y for sottes, of wrenches vnwar. [Cf. Skiterende Scottes v.r. c 1330 in Langtoft Chron. (Rolls) II. 252.]

1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde ii. v. f. 70 The naked seely sowles..were..slayne for the most parte lyke scaterynge sheepe.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Othello (1622) iii. iii. 156 Nor build your selfe a trouble, Out of my scattering, and vnsure obseruance.

1691 J. Ray Wisdom of God 31 The scattering Spirits remaining in the Heart, may for a time being agitated by heat, cause these faint Pulsations.

1718 N. Rowe tr. Lucan Pharsalia iv. 190 The scatt'ring clouds disclos'd the piercing light.

1720 D. Defoe Mem. Cavalier 128 They sent about 20 scattering Troopers.

1610 P. Holland tr. W. Camden Brit. i. 439 A small village it is in these daies, inhabited in scattering wise.

1642 T. Fuller Holy State v. xiv. 414 Then first he sells..some stragling mannour..as counting the gathering of such scattering rents rather burdensome then profitable.

1677 W. Hubbard Present State New-Eng. (1865) II. 256 Many of these scattering Plantations in our Borders..were contented to live without..Yoake of Government.

1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Georgics iv, in tr. Virgil Wks. 128 Yet lab'ring well his little Spot of Ground, Some scatt'ring Potherbs here and there he found. View more context for this quotation

1709 J. Strype Ann. Reformation xxxii. 325 Now to gather up a few more scattering passages that happened this year.

c1710 C. Fiennes Diary (1888) 164 They being scattering houses, here one, there another.

1828 N. Webster Amer. Dict. Eng. Lang. Scattering,..2. Not united; divided among many; as, scattering votes.

1856 F. L. Olmsted Journey Slave States 642 Washington is a mean, scattering village.

1875 W. D. Whitney Life & Growth Lang. xiii. 266 When the Etruscans were Latinized, but for the scattering words which they had written down, their speech passed out of all reach of knowledge.

1879 A. Johnston Hist. Amer. Polit. (1884) 221 The Electoral votes..were found to be, for President, Grant, 286, T. A. Hendricks, of Indiana, 42, and 21 scattering.

1888 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. 1 408 Letters appearing in the record less frequently than five per cent of these numbers have been regarded as scattering errors.

1761 J. Wesley Jrnl. 20 June (1827) III. 61 We had only some scattering drops [of rain].

1794 Ld. Nelson 21 Jan. in Dispatches & Lett. (1845) I. 364 They only got a few scattering shot at us.

1808 W. Herschel in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 99 280 A scattering glass applied to the incident ray, had no other effect than to diminish the brightness of the [prismatic] bow.

1911 London, Edinb. & Dublin Philos. Mag. 6th Ser. 21 675 It is essential that the thickness of the scattering material should be so small that the chance of a second encounter involving another large deflexion is very small.

1938 R. W. Lawson tr. G. von Hevesy & F. A. Paneth Man. Radioactivity (ed. 2) ix. 95 A strong pencil of α-particles of definite velocity is allowed to strike a thin sheet of the scattering substance.

1958 Times 30 Apr. 6/6 The forward scatter technique..in this case uses the troposphere as the scattering medium.

1970 D. W. Tenquist et al. Univ. Optics II. ii. 84 If the incident light photon of energy hv impinges upon a molecule of the scattering medium and the energy state of this molecule changes from E₁ to E₂, the energy of the Raman scattered photon is given by hv − (E₂ − E₁).

1942 Reverberation Stud. at 24 Kc (Univ. Calif. Div. War Res. Rep. u7) 48 (heading) Deep scattering layers.

1942 Reverberation Stud. at 24 Kc (Univ. Calif. Div. War Res. Rep. u7) 49 Observations indicate that deep scattering layers, in a given area, may appear and disappear and yet persist for periods as long as a month or perhaps even longer.

1948 National Geographic Mag. Sept. 277/2 So incredibly numerous are such sea creatures that this layer of ocean life actually returns an echo of the sound sent down by the Fathometer. The echo from this so-called ‘scattering layer’ is sometimes so strong that it causes navigators to think they are sailing over a shoal.

1972 J. Williams Oceanogr. 53 At night this deep scattering layer..is centered near the sea surface... In the morning it moves down into the depths again.

1977 Clay & Medwin Acoust. Oceanogr. vii. 237 A great deal of data, particularly the frequency dependence of scattering layers, are obtained by using explosive sources.