Scatter Meaning
/ˈskætə/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo (cause to) separate and go in different directions; to disperse.
verbTo distribute loosely as by sprinkling.
Sentence Examples
Don't scatter your things about.
Where did you scatter them?
Scatter a little flour on the work surface.
CEFR Practice Quiz
When the strong wind blew, the leaves began to ____ across the yard.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The wind began to ____ the autumn leaves across the empty park benches.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English scateren, skateren, also schateren, * probably a variant of shatter, which is imitative; * or from Old English *sceaterian, probably akin to a dialect of Old Norse, possibly ultimately related to Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to cut, split, shatter”). Compare Middle Dutch scheteren (“to scatter”), Low German schateren, Dutch schateren (“to burst out laughing”); and is apparently remotely akin to Ancient Greek σκεδάννυμι (skedánnumi, “scatter, disperse”). and Tocharian B kät- (“to scatter, sow seeds”). Doublet of shatter.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Scatter and disperse the giddy Goths."
— c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
"Why should my muse enlarge on Libyan swains, / Their scattered cottages, and ample plains?"
— 1697, Virgil, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
"Chasca's ring is unique. It appears to be, for lack of a better term, a massive piece of alien "installation art." The rings are made of small pieces of synthetic material, and are almost invisible from space. From the ground, they catch and scatter the light of Matano in picturesque ways. It is not known who created the ring or when."
— 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Chasca planetary description:
"[…] its beauty is obscured by the environmental waste and loose trash that scatter the countryside."
— 2016, J. D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy, page 21:
"The Los Angeles Basin evolved as a mobility surface principally through the combination of an initial system of electric railways connecting a scatter of agricultural settlement settlements."
— 2006, Theano S. Terkenli, Anne-Marie d'Hauteserre, Landscapes of a New Cultural Economy of Space, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 84:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
When the strong wind blew, the leaves began to ____ across the yard.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The wind began to ____ the autumn leaves across the empty park benches.