smatter

From Middle English smatteren, smateren. Compare Swedish smattra, Danish and Norwegian smadre (all of which mean to patter), German schmettern (“to resound”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsmæ.tə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsmæ.təɹ/, [ˈsmæ.ɾɚ]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ætə(r)

smatter (third-person singular simple present smatters, present participle smattering, simple past and past participle smattered)

1. (intransitive) To talk superficially; to babble, chatter.
   • 1533, John Heywood, A Mery Play Betwene the Pardoner and the Frere, London: Wyllyam Rastell,

     What standest thou there all the day smatterynge

   • c. 1594, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Scene 5,

     And why, my lady wisdom? hold your tongue,

     Good prudence; smatter with your gossips, go.

   • 1733, Jonathan Swift “On Poetry” in The Poetical Works of Jonathan Swift, London: William Pickering, 1833, Volume 2, pp. 63-64,

     For poets, law makes no provision;

     The wealthy have you in derision:

     Of state affairs you cannot smatter;

     Are awkward when you try to flatter;

2. (transitive) To speak (a language) with spotty or superficial knowledge.
   • 1891, Robert Louis Stevenson, In the South Seas, New York: Scribner, 1896, Chapter 2, p. 9,

     The languages of Polynesia are easy to smatter, though hard to speak with elegance.

3. (transitive, figuratively) To study or approach superficially; to dabble in.
4. To have a slight taste, or a slight, superficial knowledge, of anything; to smack.

• smatterer
• smattering

smatter (plural smatters)

1. A smattering (small number or amount).

   a smatter of applause

2. A smattering (superficial knowledge).

• Matters, matters