4 definitions found
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
scattered
adjective
1: occurring or distributed over widely spaced and irregular
intervals in time or space; "scattered showers";
"scattered villages"
2: not close together in time; "isolated instances of
rebellion"; "scattered fire"; "a stray bullet grazed his
thigh" [syn: {isolated}, {stray}]
3: being distributed here and there without order; "scattered
leaves littered the sidewalk"; "don't forget to pick up
the clothes lying strewn all over the floor" [syn: {strewn}]
4: lacking orderly continuity; "a confused set of
instructions"; "a confused dream about the end of the
world"; "disconnected fragments of a story"; "scattered
thoughts" [syn: {confused}, {disconnected}, {disjointed},
{disordered}, {garbled}, {illogical}, {unconnected}]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Scattered \Scat"tered\, adjective
1. Dispersed; dissipated; sprinkled, or loosely spread.
2. (Bot.) Irregular in position; having no regular order; as,
scattered leaves.
-- {Scat"tered*ly}, adverb --
{Scat"tered*ness}, noun
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Scatter \Scat"ter\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Scattered}; p. pr. &
vb. n. {Scattering}.] [OE. scateren. See {Shatter}.]
1. To strew about; to sprinkle around; to throw down loosely;
to deposit or place here and there, esp. in an open or
sparse order.
And some are scattered all the floor about.
--Chaucer.
Why should my muse enlarge on Libyan swains,
Their scattered cottages, and ample plains?
--Dryden.
Teach the glad hours to scatter, as they fly,
Soft quiet, gentle love, and endless joy. --Prior.
2. To cause to separate in different directions; to reduce
from a close or compact to a loose or broken order; to
dissipate; to disperse.
Scatter and disperse the giddy Goths. --Shak.
3. Hence, to frustrate, disappoint, and overthrow; as, to
scatter hopes, plans, or the like.
Syn: To disperse; dissipate; spread; strew.
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
143 Moby Thesaurus words for "scattered":
alienated, all up with, anarchic, arsy-varsy, ass-backwards,
balled up, beat, beaten, bested, bollixed up, broadcast, chaotic,
cheeseparing, chinchy, chintzy, confounded, confused, defeated,
deflected, deflective, detached, diffracted, diffractive, diffuse,
diffused, disarticulated, discomfited, disconnected, discrete,
disengaged, disjoined, disjoint, disjointed, disjunct, dislocated,
dispersed, dispread, disseminated, dissipated, distorted,
distributed, disunited, divided, divorced, done for, done in, down,
estranged, exiguous, fallen, fixed, flectional, flexed, floored,
fouled up, galley-west, helter-skelter, higgledy-piggledy,
hors de combat, hugger-mugger, in a mess, inflective, infrequent,
isolated, jumbled, lambasted, lathered, licked, meager, miserly,
mixed up, mucked up, muddled, niggardly, on the skids, outdone,
overborne, overcome, overmastered, overmatched, overpowered,
overridden, overthrown, overturned, overwhelmed, panicked,
piddling, poor, put to rout, rare, refracted, refractile,
refractive, refrangible, removed, routed, ruined, scant, scanty,
scarce, screwed up, scrimping, scrimpy, segregated,
seldom met with, seldom seen, separated, sequestered, settled,
shut off, silenced, skew, skewed, skimble-skamble, skimping,
skimpy, skinned, skinned alive, slim, snafu, sparse, sporadic,
spotty, spread, sprinkled, stampeded, stingy, straggling, straggly,
strewn, strown, thin, tight, topsy-turvy, trimmed, trounced,
undone, upset, upside-down, whelmed, whipped, widespread,
worsted
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