scat|ter

scat|ter «SKAT uhr», verb, noun.

–v.t.

1. to throw here and there; sprinkle: »

The farmer scattered corn for the chickens. Scatter ashes on the icy sidewalk.

SYNONYM(S): strew, sow.

2. to distribute here and there: »

So long as works of art are scattered through the nation, no universal destruction of them is possible (John Ruskin).

3. to separate and drive off in different directions: »

The police scattered the disorderly crowd.

4. Physics. to throw back or deflect (as rays of light or radioactive parcles) in all directions: »

There would be no lens surfaces to scatter light, and the working distance could be quite large (J. G. Thomas).

–v.i.

to separate and go in different directions: »

The hens scattered in fright when the truck honked at them.

–n.

1. the act or fact of scattering: »

There was a general scatter of the party who had come to see the duel (Samuel Lover).

2. anything that is scattered: »

significant rock formations on the scatter of islands west of Ellesmere (New Scientist).

3. Slang. an apartment; room: »

The Grand Duke hurries straightway to Marian's scatter, where she tenderly awaits Orloff (New Yorker).

╂[perhaps unrecorded Old English sceaterian. Compare etym. under shatter. (Cf. ↑shatter)]

–scat´ter|er, noun.

Synonym Study transitive verb. 3 Scatter, dispel, disperse mean to separate and drive away so that an original form or arrangement is lost. Scatter means to separate and drive off in different directions a group or mass of people or objects: »

The wind scattered my papers.

Dispel applies only to things that cannot be touched, such as clouds and feelings, and means to drive them completely away: »

The pilot's confidence dispelled my doubts about the bad weather.

Disperse means to scatter thoroughly the individuals of a compact body or mass but not so that they cannot come together again: »

Storms dispersed the convoy.