scatter

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   distribute loosely

   I scattered gun powder under the wagon.

2. 2
   verb

   sow by scattering

   scatter seeds

3. 3
   verb

   to cause to separate and go in different directions

   I waved my hand and scattered the crowds.

4. 4
   verb

   To (cause to) separate and go in different directions; to disperse.

   The crowd scattered in terror.

5. 5
   verb

   To distribute loosely as by sprinkling.

   Her ashes were scattered at the top of a waterfall.

6. 6
   verb

   To deflect (radiation or particles).

   Chasca's ring is unique. It appears to be, for lack of a better term, a massive piece of alien "installation art." The rings are made of small pieces of synthetic material, and are almost invisible from space. From the ground, they catch and scatter the light of Matano in picturesque ways. It is not known who created the ring or when.

7. 7
   verb

   To frustrate, disappoint, and overthrow.

   to scatter hopes or plans

8. 8
   verb

   To be dispersed upon.

   Desiccated stalks scattered the fields.

Etymology

From Middle English scateren, skateren, also schateren, * probably a variant of shatter, which is imitative; * or from Old English *sceaterian, probably akin to a dialect of Old Norse, possibly ultimately related to Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to cut, split, shatter”). Compare Middle Dutch scheteren (“to scatter”), Low German schateren, Dutch schateren (“to burst out laughing”); and is apparently remotely akin to Ancient Greek σκεδάννυμι (skedánnumi, “scatter, disperse”). and Tocharian B kät- (“to scatter, sow seeds”). Doublet of shatter.