spat
spat Lexical Profile
spat Game Scores & Validity
• verb
To eject saliva, liquid, or food forcibly from the mouth (past tense and past participle of spit).
"The camel spat at the fence when the tourists got too close."
To engage in a petty, brief quarrel or dispute.
"The siblings spatted over who would get the window seat on the train."
To release spawn or settle on a submerged surface (of oysters or other shellfish).
"Warm summer waters encourage the oysters to spat along the rocky estuary."
• noun
A brief, petty, or minor quarrel or disagreement.
"The two neighbors quickly resolved their brief spat over the property line."
A short cloth or leather gaiter worn over the instep and around the ankle to protect the shoe and sock from mud or water (usually used in the plural).
"In the historical play, the actor wore a tailored waistcoat and white spats over his polished shoes."
The spawn or free-swimming larval stage of an oyster or other bivalve mollusk, especially when it settles and attaches to a submerged surface.
"Marine biologists monitored the reef to see how many oyster spat had attached to the limestone."
• Rhymes for spat
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
As a noun meaning a petty quarrel, the word originated in early 19th-century American English, likely of imitative origin or influenced by 'spatter'. In the sense of a short cloth covering for a shoe, it arose in the early 19th century as a shortened form of 'spatterdash', a protective gaiter worn to keep mud from spattering one's stockings.