[Prob. imitative: cf. SPAT sb.4]
1. intr. To start up sharply or actively; to engage in a dispute. U.S.
1809. Kendall, Trav., III. 292. I was answered, ‘that the women had not much to say in politics, though now and then they would spat up.’
1848. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., 323. To Spat. To dispute; to quarrel. A low word. New England.
2. trans. To clap, slap or smack.
c. 1832. Sir C. Lyell, in Mrs. Lyell, Life, Lett. & Jrnls. (1881), I. 11. We were very angry with him for having spatted us all round with a ruler.
1845. S. Judd, Margaret, I. xvi. 156 (Bartlett). The little Isabel leaped up and down spatting her hands.
1886. J. C. Harris, in Century Mag., Jan., 429/2. You can’t spat a man harder betwixt the eyes than to set back an’ not break bread wi’ ’im.
b. To beat down with a spade or the like.
1845. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., V. II. 553. It must be … finally spatted down and smoothed by the spade.
1890. L. W. Bacon, in Lippincott’s Mag., April, 579. Shovelled away by dozens and spatted down under neat mounds by the unfeeling spade of the scientific excavator.
3. intr. To administer slaps or pats; to strike sharply, to spatter.
1868. Louisa M. Alcott, Little Women (1869), I. xv. 231. Amy spatted away energetically.
1894. Crockett, Raiders, xl. (ed. 3), 341. Bullets spatted uncomfortably among the rocks.
b. Used adverbially.
1890. L. C. D’Oyle, Notches, 71. Bill fired again…, and I heard the ball go ‘spat!’
1895. Outing, XXVI. 30/2. Spat-spat, splash! they fell, one big sprig coming down squarely on top of my head.
Hence Spatting vbl. sb., a slapping, a smacking.
1840. Comic Lat. Gram., 34. A caning…. A spatting…. A flogging.
1883. C. D. Warner, Roundabout Journey, 24. As I approached this sunken place I heard a tremendous spatting, and pounding, and chattering, and laughing.
