splatter
/ˈsplatə
/verb
1 [with object] Splash with a liquid, typically a thick or viscous one: a passing cart rolled by, splattering him with mud...
- ‘Hey’, she said as she slapped his hand that was holding the straw, making it come out and splatter her with Caramel thick shake.
- Her face was splattered with specks of mud and dirt, and beads of sweat were forming on her hairline.
- Just as I helped R. into the stylist's chair the heavens opened up and sheets of rain descended with liquid force, splattering the windows and instantly flooding the parking lot.
1.1Splash (a liquid) over a surface or object: (as adjective splattered) she wiped the splattered blood from her face...
- Wherever the thirsty birds drank, they also splattered the sugar water causing Mother to do battle with the resulting ants.
- In no time, his last ounce of resolve left him and he fell face first into the bowl, splattering droplets of broth everywhere.
- I reached my hand in the pool and splattered some water in his face.
1.2 [no object, with adverbial] (Of a liquid) splash: heavy droplets of rain splatter on to the windscreen...
- She sighed and continued to watch the grass slightly shake as the water splattered onto them.
- Droplets splattered onto my sweatshirt, seeping through the thin fabric and chilling my skin.
- The blade pierced his shoulder and droplets of blood splattered onto the wall.
2 informal Prominently or sensationally publish (a story) in a newspaper: the story is splattered over pages two and three...
- If you become famous enough to be mentioned in the local or even regional news then your face will be splattered over all the news screens.
- However, what was even more sad was to see the pictures of Foe splattered across every national newspaper the next morning.
- The action film Spider-Man, already splattered over billboards across America's big cities, will be released on May 3 in the US.
noun
1A spot or trail of a thick or viscous liquid splashed over a surface or object: each puddle we crossed threw a splatter of mud on the windshield...
- The post ripped out of the thick mud with a sharp sucking sound and a splatter of wet dirt, and the ropes slipped from Talon's wrist.
- A splatter of blood streaked itself across several of the tomes and was only interrupted once where one book did not have any on it.
- With his ebony talons came a splatter of that liquid heat and a chunk of flesh.
2 [as modifier] informal Denoting or referring to films featuring many violent and gruesome deaths: a splatter movie...
- He started out making no-budget splatter films, only to go on to helm one of the most successful cinematic trilogies of all time.
- The film revels in blood and gore, but this is not just a run-of-the-mill splatter film.
- A splatter film's charge is to keep upping the atrocity ante as it zooms into the murderer's soul.
Origin
Late 18th century: imitative.