spattle

From Middle English spatyll, spatyl, spatule, from Old French spatule, espatule, from Late Latin spatula.

spattle (plural spattles)

1. A spatula.
   • 1883, The Coffee public-house news, page 67:

     [Mix the] cream with an ice "spattle." When the cream gets to be of a certain consistency, the spattle may be held firmly in the freezer, which is to be spun round by means of the fingers on the rim until the whole becomes frozen hard. A good […]

   • 1899, John Blandy, The Bakers' Guide and Practical Assistant to the Art of Bread Making in All Its Branches, page 211:

     […] occasionally sprinkle a handful of salt on the ice while freezing, give a few turns and work it down smooth with the spattle; then turn until the cream is frozen even and smooth all through.

2. A tool or implement for mottling pottery with colour.^[1]

spattle (third-person singular simple present spattles, present participle spattling, simple past and past participle spattled)

1. (dated) To stir (something, typically ice cream) with a spattle (spatula).
   • 1815, Thomas BURFORD, The Friendly Instructor, Or Complete Guide to the Arts of Cookery, Confectionery, Pastry, Preserving, &c, page 27:

     Ice Creams. Put your cream in the freezing pot, set it in a tub, beat ice small and mix salt with it, put it round your freezer and turn it round, as it freezes spattle it down, if not hard set it again, serve it up in glasses […]

   • 1928, David Ellis, Dugald Campbell, The Science and Practice of Confectionery, page 215:

     The mixture is now ready for freezing, and should be poured into the freezer previously set up, and well spattled which it is freezing to give a fine smooth ice.

   • 2013 October 28, Henry G. Harris, S.P. Borella, About Ices Jellies & Creams, Routledge, →ISBN:

     […] the cold custard, which must be put in a well set up freezer and frozen thoroughly and well spattled.

spattle

1. Spawl; spittle.
   • 1888 [1555], The fardle of facions [by Joannes Boemus, tr. by W. Waterman from book 1 and 2 of Omnium gentium mores], page 81:

     ... he mingleth earthe and his spattle toguether, and smereth the eyes, eares, and nosethrilles of the childe.

spattle (third-person singular simple present spattles, present participle spattling, simple past and past participle spattled)

1. (uncommon) To spit.
   • 1538, John Bale, Comedy concenynge thre lawes:

     I can worke wyles in battle, If I do ones but spattle

   • 1842 [1554], John Philpot, The Examinations and Writings of John Philpot ..., page 313:

     I would I had a fountain of spittle to spattle on them : I would my spittle might be of so great virtue against them as the words of St Paul […]

   • 1977, John Clute, The Disinheriting Party: A Novel, London : Allison and Busby:

     He spattled. "It's brand new," said Hector Grimthorpe, indicating his Corvair.

spattle (plural spattles)

1. A small spate; a slight inundation or a sprinkle of rain.
   • 1812, Dr. Singer (William), Board of Agriculture (Great Britain), General View of the Agriculture, State of Property, and Improvements, in the County of Dumfries ..., page 496:

     The caal^[sic] or dam of Bankend-Mill, (Fact 12,) pens the water […] consequently, if this were removed, and the channel above widened and deepended, […] the water might be reduced in dry seasons 4 feet within bank, which would render the meadows more firm and dry, and carry off small spattles of rain, without damaging the crops; but in the larger summer floods this improvement would avail but little, […]

   • 2015 September 10, W. J. McCormack, Northman: John Hewitt (1907-87): An Irish writer, his world, and his times, OUP Oxford, →ISBN:

     Both painters abjure movement—no blustery clouds or spattles of rain, few running or jumping humans. To be sure, dancers and horse-persons people Luke's "The Rehearsal" (1950, commissioned by Hewitt) but they are closer to figures in the mediaeval Bayeux Tapestry, […]

spattle (third-person singular simple present spattles, present participle spattling, simple past and past participle spattled)

1. (uncommon) To sprinkle or spatter; to mottle.
   • 1910, Shropshire Parish Register Society, Shropshire Parish Registers: Diocese of St. Aspah, page 487:

     The windows […] were all shatter'd: about a foot square of the foundation seemed as if ramm'd in with a force that spattled the dirt as high as the Cornish : […]

   • 2015, Otto Penzler, The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories, Pantheon, →ISBN, page 432:

     ... spattled with nicotine, and measled with pricks from his hypodermic syringe.

• “spattle”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• Plattes, let past, peltast