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Glite Dictionary
😠 To argue briefly 😠 A small argument 🥚 To release eggs 👞 Shoe covering 🦪 To attach (mollusk) 🦪 A young oyster 💧 To hit noisily
to spat

to spat

1 9.9
To attach to a hard surface and stay there, like young oysters
  • verb
  • /spæt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : asentarse
  • Once they reached maturity, the mollusks spat and began to form colonies on the coral.

Examples

  • The tiny clams spat onto the sand, securing themselves for life.

  • And you used me and spat me out!

    Boogie Woogie (2010)

  • The computer spat out figures and angles.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • The head tilted, the mouth spat into the air.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Grandpa stepped out of the barn, looked up at the sky, and spat.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Their breathing was labored, and sometimes they spat up blood when they coughed.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • It sucked it in halfway, then spat it out.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • With a thunderous gurgling belch, the dragon spat

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Olympia oyster growers collected spat on shells and oysters from within the dikes and from other areas, including a State Oyster Reserve in Oakland Bay.

    Academic text (1996)

  • The sky bulked bigger and darker, then rolled and spat huge angry drops at her, stinging splats that struck her face like insults before they solidified into a hammering downpour.

    Fiction book (1995)

Surface Forms

spat infinitive
spatting present participle
spats third person singular
spat past
spat past participle

Etymology

Spat (of oysters, to attach) is related to the young shellfish called spat, which seemed to 'spit' themselves onto a surface and stay. That's why to spat means to fix in place on a rock or shell.