Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913
Spatter
Spat′ter (spăt′tẽr), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Spattered; p. pr. & vb. n. Spattering.] [From the root of spit salvia.] 1. To sprinkle with a liquid or with any wet substance, as water, mud, or the like; to make wet of foul spots upon by sprinkling; as, to spatter a coat; to spatter the floor; to spatter boots with mud.
Upon any occasion he is to be spattered over with the blood of his people. Burke.
2. To distribute by sprinkling; to sprinkle around; as, to spatter blood. Pope.
3. Fig.: To injure by aspersion; to defame; to soil; also, to throw out in a defamatory manner.
Spat′ter, v. i. To throw something out of the mouth in a scattering manner; to sputter.
That mind must needs be irrecoverably depraved, which, . . . tasting but once of one just deed, spatters at it, and abhors the relish ever after. Milton.