sputter
sputtered; sputtering; sputters
When someone (or something) makes a soft, fast popping sound, they sputter. If you expect to win first prize in a poetry contest but don't, you might sputter, "But...but..."
When you sputter, you're often angry, surprised, or otherwise at a loss for words. You may sputter incoherent sounds, or short syllables. When you start up your dirt bike, its engine sputters too, with muted exploding sounds. This word is also a noun: "The sputter from out on the lake told me he got the old motorboat going." In physics, to sputter is to send high-energy particles onto a material, dislodging tiny particles from its surface.
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spit up in an explosive manner
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utter with a spitting sound, as if in a rage
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make an explosive sound“sputter ing engines”
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type of:
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pop
make a sharp explosive noise
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pop
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climb awkwardly, as if by scrambling
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cause to undergo a process in which atoms are removed
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the noise of something spattering or sputtering explosively
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synonyms:
spatter, spattering, splatter, splattering, splutter, sputtering
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type of:
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noise
sound of any kind (especially unintelligible or dissonant sound)
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noise
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an utterance (of words) with spitting sounds (as in rage)
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synonyms:
splutter
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type of:
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utterance, vocalization
the use of uttered sounds for auditory communication
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utterance, vocalization
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