1736 R. Ainsworth Thes. Linguæ Latinæ I. (at cited word) A splash, or splatch of dirt.

1818 H. J. Todd Johnson's Dict. Eng. Lang. Splash, wet or dirt thrown up from a puddle [etc.].

1833 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Cottage Archit. §542 The shapes of the patches will be further altered by the addition of each splash of colour.

1863 S. Baring-Gould Iceland 120 The snow was blotched with large splashes of blood.

1879 ‘E. Garrett’ House by Wks. I. 185 A Turkey rug..lay on the stone floor,..befouled with splashes of grease and dirty water.

1813 G. Montagu Suppl. Ornithol. Dict. at Woodcock Where the fowler perceives perforations made by the bill of a Woodcock,..or the mutings, called the splash.

1863 Proc. National Rifle Assoc. 1863 p. xxi At the 200 yards pool,..two men were slightly cut in the legs by the splash of bullets.

1865 Pall Mall Gaz. 22 Sept. 5/2 Several sheep..had been poisoned by swallowing minute portions of bullets—the ‘splash’—which lay scattered on the grass.

1887 Daily News 25 Oct. 4/7 He granted an injunction..to use the other target in a way that would cause bullets or splashes of bullets to fall upon the plaintiff's land.

1931 G. le Q. Martel In Wake of Tank 45–6 The question of ‘splash’ was one which caused us much trouble and necessitated experimental work. When a bullet hits a steel plate, the heat generated fuses the lead and this squirts along the armour plate and enters the tank at any crevices that exist, such as the clearance between a revolving turret and the walls of the tank. This lead enters the tank as a bright flash, and is known as splash. It is curious that the Germans never realised the effect of splash on our crews.

1879 Lumberman's Gaz. 23 Aug. Some of these..logs may possibly be moved by a splash to have been made at Little Falls dam.

1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. xv. [Circe] 526 Here, to buy yourself a gin and splash.

1929 W. E. Collinson Spoken Eng. 52 Would you like a whisky and soda (whisky and ‘splash’)?

1935 G. Greene Eng. made Me v. 243 The atmosphere of..the week-end jaunt, the whisky and splash.

1965 ‘J. le Carré’ Looking-glass War xv. 173 Woodford's wife added a little soda to her Scotch, a splash: it was habit rather than taste.

1977 Rolling Stone 30 June 81/3 I walked to the bar, ordered a double vodka with a splash of tonic no fruit.

1804 G. Colman Let. 9 Jan. in A. Mathews Mem. C. Mathews (1838) I. xx. 434 A vile part, surely, for the débût of a man who is to make a splash.

1806 T. S. Surr Winter in London II. iv. 91 Three of my old schoolfellows at Eton, who were very clever, and cut a splash in the ‘Microcosm’.

1824 Countess Granville Lett. (1894) I. 287 I expect our drum to make a great splash.

1842 S. Lover Handy Andy xvii A band is all very well for making a splash in the first procession.

1890 Spectator 14 June 829/1 Distinction shows itself without making a splash, without calling attention to itself.

1810 Splendid Follies III. 188 Many a demirep lounges in Tom's curricle for a splash through the city.

1832 J. Romilly Diary 6 May in Cambridge Diary (1967) 12 Missed Hearing Roze's Sermon..:—hear it was poor: tho with a splash passage against the wickedness of manufactures.

1863 A. W. Fonblanque Tangled Skein II. 33 What a grand splash you had on the 31st! We saw it all in the ‘Illustrated’.

1885 Daily Tel. 28 Dec. (Encycl. Dict.) Enable him to have a rattling good splash for it somehow—break or make.

1899 Westm. Gaz. 5 Dec. 3/1 That last speech of his caused enough splash for some time to come.

1922 J. Joyce Ulysses iii. xvi. [Eumaeus] 608 The usual splash page of letterpress about the same old matrimonial tangle.

1932 H. Nicolson Public Faces xi. 288 We must get the news back here before to-night—time for full splash in tomorrow's papers.

1933 W. Moss Polit. Parties Irish Free State iii. 127 ‘Splashes’, i.e. full-page advertisements using the most effective appeals and backed with extensive and detailed argument.

1948 Manch. Guardian Weekly 1 July 2 The perfect ‘splash’ story in the lull after the Republican Convention.

1960 J. Robb Front Page Story 46 Percy tossed the latest copy over to Bert, the ‘Splash’ sub. ‘Splash’ sub was the title given to the man who normally handled only the page-one lead. He was usually..the best sub-editor in the office.

1966 New Statesman 13 May 680/3 The paper had reverted to its old jittery habit of lifting other people's splashes and exclusives.

1974 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 23 Oct. 12/7 ‘Anything could happen,’ said..Michael Wilson after the London papers gave splash play to his announcement.

1977 New Yorker 24 Oct. 55/2 The violent crimes.., if they occur in New York City, get a one-day splash in the News.

1979 P. Niesewand Member of Club iv. 31 Courtney turned back to the paper..to look at the front page. The splash story was the row over the death of a young South African commando.

1982 Chicago Sun-Times 2 Dec. 67 Speakes gave a thorough briefing on the Cabinet Council study, providing the rest of the nation a Page 1 splash the next day.

1855 ‘C. Idle’ Hints Shooting & Fishing 232 The Splash Net.]

1855 ‘C. Idle’ Hints Shooting & Fishing 235 To use the splash advantageously at night, the tide and weather must both be in your favour.

1831 H. T. De la Beche Geol. Man. ii. 82 This water being apparently derived from the drain of the mountains behind, and the splash of the sea.

1847 Ld. Tennyson Princess i. 22 The splash and stir Of fountains spouted up and showering down.

1885 Liverpool Daily Post 1 May 4/9 What if days of foggy drizzle alternate with days of steady splash?

1877 J. W. Begbie in J. R. Reynolds Syst. Med. IV. 185 A diagnosis of Pneumo-pericarditis..may be made from observing a guggling or churning splash sound with the heart's action limited to the cardiac region.

1890 F. Taylor Man. Pract. Med. 435 The presence of air and liquid together in the pleural cavity may be demonstrated by the test known as Hippocratic succussion, or splash sound.

1908 Hutchison & Rainy Clin. Methods (ed. 4) 66 It should be remembered..that a splash may be elicited over even a normal stomach shortly after a meal containing much fluid,..and care should also be taken not to mistake a splash produced in the transverse colon for a stomach splash.

1910 Practitioner June 760 If the stomach be drained apparently dry a splash can still be obtained over the pyloric end.

1938 N. L. Eckhoff in H. Rolleston Brit. Encycl. Med. Pract. VII. 226 A splash may be heard in cases of pyloric obstruction, and in some cases of obstruction in the colon.

1971 R. B. Cole Essent. Respiratory Dis. iii. 29 The presence of air and fluid in the pleural space (hydro~pneumothorax) is indicated if a splash can be heard on auscultation when the thoracic cage is gently shaken. It should not be confused with the splashing of gastric contents.

1832 T. Brown Bk. Butterflies, Sphinxes & Moths (1834) I. 197 In Papilio agala this silver is disposed in distinct splashes, or spots.

1856 in A. J. C. Hare Two Noble Lives (1893) II. 88 C. wore his..uniform, which made such a splash of gold that we were quite fine enough.

1883 R. L. Stevenson Silverado Squatters 253 [The light] fell in a great splash upon the thicket.

1897 E. W. Hamilton Outlaws of Marches iii. 24 A bright bay..with a great white splash on its forehead.

1851 E. S. Dixon Dovecote & Aviary iv. 115 Tumblers; these are small, and of diverse colours... There are various ‘splashes’, as myrtle-splash, cinnamon-splash, &c.

1854 Poultry Chron. 1 332/1 For the best pair of Almond, or Splash Tumblers.

1854 Poultry Chron. 1 332/1 What is a Splash, but an Almond-bred bird?

1867 W. B. Tegetmeier Pigeons 120 It is no easy matter to lay down certain rules for matching Splashes, or indeed any other coloured birds.

1879 L. Wright Pract. Pigeon Keeper 112 These..included Almonds, Splashes,..black Splash cock, and red cock.

1929 Star 21 Aug. 16/2 They have two or three crosses of St. Simon and a couple of splashes of Carbine.

1864 J. C. Hotten Slang Dict. (new ed.) Splash, complexion powder used by ladies to whiten their necks and faces.

1967 Life 27 Oct. 81/3 Amphetamines are known by many names..wake-ups, eye-openers, truck-drivers, cartwheels, coast-to-coasts, purple hearts, dexies, splash, speed.

1969 J. Gardner Compl. State of Death ix. 166 The American..addicts..call most of the amphetamines ‘speed’, in the same way as they talk of others as ‘bennies’, ‘splash’, ‘cartwheels’.

1974 M. C. Gerald Pharmacol. xvii. 332 Amphetamines (Benzedrine),..Bennies, Peaches, Splash.