[Alteration of PLASH v.2]
I. trans. 1. To bespatter, to wet or soil, by dashing water, mud, etc.
1722–7. Boyer, Dict. Royal, I. s.v. Rejaillir, He splashed his Face with Dirt.
1755. Johnson, Splash, to daub with dirt in great quantities.
1798. W. Hutton, Family of Hutton, 98. Our trooper dismounted, and cast a large stone with design to splash her.
1818. J. W. Croker, in C. Papers, 8 Dec. (1884), I. 121. We ride together, and in the dirty roads splash one another.
1861. Geo. Eliot, Silas M., iii. You’ll … get back home at eight o’clock, splashed up to the chin.
1891. Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, iv. The slaves … were splashing his face with the water of the fountain.
b. To stain, mark, or mottle with irregular patches of color or light. Chiefly in pa. pple.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 542. The surface of the wall to be splashed must be well seasoned, and perfectly dry.
1865. Gosse, Land & Sea (1874), 32. Two eggs of a dirty white, mottled and splashed with brown.
1890. E. H. Barker, Wayfaring in France, 191. Where the sunny grass was splashed by the dark shadows of cypresses.
2. To cause (a liquid or semi-liquid substance) to fly about; to scatter, throw up or about, with some force or commotion.
1762. Lloyd, Ep. Churchill, Poems 191. Where the mock female shrew and hen-peck’d male Scoop’d rich contents from either copious pail,… And dash’d and splash’d the filthy grains about.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xxii. The few children made a dismal cheer, as the carriage, splashing mud, drove away.
1859. Habits of Gd. Society, v. 224. You must carefully turn the joint so as not to splash the gravy.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 191. The liquid [lava] is broken up by the air, and so splashed about that it falls in drops.
fig. 1824. Landor, Imag. Conv., Wks. 1846, I. 189. Juvenal … stamps too often, and splashes up too much filth.
b. fig. To write down carelessly or quickly.
1897. Daily News, 2 March, 3/5. I witnessed many other scenes like the ones which I have rapidly splashed down for you upon paper.
3. To cause (something) to dash or agitate a liquid, esp. so as to produce a sound.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, xix. 319. Splashing their oars, and making as much noise as possible.
1889. Mrs. Lynn Linton, Thro’ Long Night, I. I. ii. 19–20. Sly may … splash his spatulous fingers in rose-water.
4. To make (one’s way) with splashing.
1809. W. Irving, Knickerb, III. v. § 5 (1848), 171. The … little vessel ploughed and splashed its way up the Hudson.
1890. Conan Doyle, White Company, xxviii. Through this the horses splashed their way.
II. intr. 5. To cause dashing or noisy agitation of a liquid; to move or fall with a splash or splashes.
1715. Prior, Down-Hall, 47. Pray get a Calesch, That in Summer may Burn, and in Winter may Splash.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxxi. The heavy burden splashed in the dark-blue waters.
1843. Le Fevre, Life Trav. Phys., III. III. ix. 194. In order to reward myself … I splashed away in a bath.
1884. Marshall’s Tennis Cuts, 271. Where the startled wild fowl splash in Sludgeboro’s lagoons and marshes.
b. With preps. or advs. implying movement.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., xxiv. In to the water we behoved a’ to splash, heels ower head.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. VII. xi. Poor Weber went splashing along, close by the Royal carriage.
1862. Mrs. H. Wood, Mrs. Hallib. Troub., I. i. To splash through the wet streets … was an expedition rather agreeable to Francis.
1902. Belloc, Path to Rome, 300. Through the quiet, cold, persistent rain I splash up the main street.
c. To use a splash-net.
1855. ‘C. Idle,’ Hints Shooting & Fishing, 234. When it is intended to continue splashing during the night, the net must be taken in carefully.
6. Of liquids: To dash or fly in some quantity and with some degree of force.
1755. Dict. Arts & Sci., II. s.v. Foliating, So that the amalgam, when you pour it in, may not splash.
1827. Faraday, Chem. Manip., vii. (1842), 218. A few particles may splash upon the hotter parts of the retort.
1871. R. Ellis, trans. Catullus, lxiv. 185. Nowhere open way, seas splash in circle around me.
1880. Trans. Seismol. Soc. Japan, I. II. 22. The manner in which water was observed to splash out of wash-hand basins.
b. Const. up.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. I. viii. Redhot balls … ‘filled internally with oil or turpentine which splashes up in flame.’
1851. Mrs. Browning, Casa Guidi Wind., II. 539. Heroes’ blood Splashed up against thy noble brow in Rome.
7. Of bullets: To throw off fragments on striking an object.
1894. Westm. Gaz., 1 June, 4/2. The bullet struck just slightly above the place and then ‘splashed,’ as it is generally called.
