0 present participle of splutter
1 to speak in a quick and confused way, producing short, unclear noises because of surprise, anger, etc.:
[ + speech ] "But, er ... when, um, ... how?" he spluttered.
The old gentleman was spluttering with indignation.
She took too big a gulp of whisky and started to cough and splutter.
There is nothing more off-putting than trying to make a speech on an important subject and hearing someone coughing and spluttering behind.
You get out on to a narrow platform with a miserable, spluttering gas lamp.
It is rather like the last few spluttering turns of an extinguishing catherine wheel.
Slowly, in all the different forums in which these matters are discussed, there seems to be a spluttering into life of one sort or another.
They become almost like doctors' surgeries when children are coughing and spluttering because of dampness in the house.
We shall get our oil on a commercial basis or not at all, and we have already, 7½ years ago, seen one desert pipeline broken and spluttering in the sand.
But many homeless people try to avoid using such provision, being understandably reluctant to spend the night in a vast dormitory in the company of coughing, spluttering, alcoholic older men.
Spluttering pupils emerged, asking what was happening.
