Chiefly dial. or colloq. [Probably imitative: cf. SPAT v.2]
1. A tiff or dispute; a quarrel. Orig. U.S.
1804. Repertory (Boston), 27 April (Thornton). [London news] The late spat between Mr. Pitt and Mr. W. Pulteney.
1828. Webster, Spat, a petty combat; a little quarrel or dissension. (A vulgar use of the word in New England.)
1869. Mrs. Stowe, Old Town, 33. They was pretty apt to have spats.
1898. J. M. Henderson, Chron. Karldale, etc. 316. Robert and his uncle had a bit o’ a spat this morning.
2. A smart blow, smack or slap. Also fig.
1823. Creevey, in C. Papers (1904), II. 62. The first sentence relating to Spain is a regular spat on the face to the Villains of Verona. Ibid. (1831), 231. I received rather a smartish spat on my shoulder from an unseen stick.
1840. Comic Lat. Gram., 23. More kicks, more boxes on the ear, more spats, more canings.
1899. Contemp. Rev., Dec., 881. An attention which she promptly requited by a ‘spat’ on the nose.
3. A sharp, smacking sound.
1881. Mary H. Catherwood, Craque o’ Doom, ix. 74. They heard the spat of boot-soles on the flinty pike behind them.
1893. C. King, Foes in Ambush, 110. The bullets with furious spat drove deep into the adobe or whizzed through the gunny-sacks into the barley.
