A Quick and Simple Dictionary

sputter

1. Noun.  Moist matter thrown out in small detached particles; also, confused and hasty speech.
2. Verb.  To spit, or to emit saliva from the mouth in small, scattered portions, as in rapid speaking.
3. Verb.  To utter words hastily and indistinctly; to speak so rapidly as to emit saliva.
4. Verb.  To throw out anything, as little jets of steam, with a noise like that made by one sputtering.
5. Verb.  (transitive) To spit out hastily by quick, successive efforts, with a spluttering sound; to utter hastily and confusedly, without control over the organs of speech.
6. Verb.  (physics) (intransitive) To cause surface atoms or electrons of a solid to be ejected by bombarding it with heavy atoms or ions.
7. Verb.  (physics) (transitive) To coat the surface of an object by sputtering.