splat

• IPA^(key): /splæt/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æt

From earlier splat (“to spread flat”), from Middle English splatten, splaten (“to stretch out, extend", also "to split”). Compare dialectal English splat (“flat”).

splat (plural splats)

1. The narrow wooden centre piece of a chair back.

Onomatopoeia

splat (plural splats)

1. The sharp, atonal sound of a liquid or soft solid hitting a solid surface.

   I didn't see the egg fall, but I heard the splat when it hit the floor.

2. The irregular shape of a viscous liquid or soft solid which has hit a solid surface.

   The canvas was covered by seemingly careless splats of paint.

3. (computing, slang) The Command key on an Apple Macintosh.
4. (computing, slang) Any of various characters appearing in computer character sets, particularly # and *. The specific use of this nickname changes from one community to another.
   • in manuals of the Ruby language, for example, the asterisk is called a splat only when it separates an array into multiple elements or when it makes an array from multiple elements. Otherwise, it's a multiplication operator.
5. A move in playboating involving stalling in place while positioned vertically against a solid object in the water.

splat (third-person singular simple present splats, present participle splatting, simple past and past participle splatted)

1. (intransitive) To hit a flat surface and deform into an irregular shape.

   The egg splatted onto the floor.

2. (transitive) To splatter.

   She splatted the roach with her shoe.

3. (computer graphics, transitive) To combine different textures by applying an alpha channel map to the higher levels, revealing the layers underneath where the map is partially or completely transparent.

• splat mat
• splatter

• plop
• splash
• sploosh
• sploop

• -plast, plats, slapt, spalt