scattered

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈskætɚd/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈskætəd/

• Audio (US):

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• Hyphenation: scat‧tered

scattered

1. simple past and past participle of scatter

scattered (comparative more scattered, superlative most scattered)

1. Dispersed, spread apart into disunited units.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. The First Part , 2nd edition, part 1, London: Richard Iones, , published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene ii:

     And when their ſcattered armie is ſubdu’d:
     And you march on their ſlaughtered carkaſſes,
     Share equally the gold that bought their liues,
     And liue like Gentlmen in Perſea, […]

2. Seemingly randomly distributed.
   • 1918, W B Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs, […], and all these articles […] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.

3. (meteorology, of clouds) Covering three eighths to four eighths of the sky.
4. (meteorology, of precipitation) Affecting 30 percent to 50 percent of a forecast zone.

   Scattered showers.

• createdst, desert cat