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patter

Pronunciation: /ˈpæt.ə/

The English word “patter” has 9 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A soft repeated sound, as of rain falling, or feet walking on a hard surface.
  2. Glib and rapid speech, such as from an auctioneer, a stage magician, a sports commentator, or a salesperson with a slick style of selling.
  3. One who pats.

verb

  1. To make irregularly repeated sounds of low-to-moderate magnitude and lower-than-average pitch.
  2. To spatter; to sprinkle.
  3. To speak glibly and rapidly, as does an auctioneer or a sports commentator.
  4. To repeat the Lord's Prayer.
  5. To pray.
  6. To repeat hurriedly; to mutter.

Etymology

1610s, pat + -er (“frequentative (indicating repeated action)”), of (onomatopoeia) origin.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.