scatterbrain (skater bran)

A thoughtle , giddy person; one incapable of serious, connected thought. Cowper. [Colloq.] Poor Alexander, he is a fool, a scatter - brain, and for Č. Reade , Art, p. 23. scatter-brained (skat'er-brand), a. Thoughtle ; heedle ; giddy. aught I know a versifier; but he is my son. This functionary was a good-hearted, tearful, scatter brained girl, lately taken by Tom's mother from the village school. Hughes, Tom Brown at Rugby, i. 2. 5383 scattered (skat'érd), p. a. 1. Widely separated; found, occurring, or placed at wide or irregular intervals of distance. A few scattered garrisons still held out; but the whole open country was subjugated. 2. Wandering; vague. Macaulay, Frederic the Great. When the instruments of praise begin to sound [in the sanctuary), our scattered thoughts presently take the alarm, return to their post and to their duty, preparing Bp. Atterbury, Sermons, II. xxii. arming themselves against their spiritual 3. Disunited; divided; distracted. From France there comes a power Into this scatter'd kingdom. Shak ., Lear, iii. 1. 31. 4. In bot., irregular in position; without apparent regularity of order: as, scattered branches; scattered leaves.-5. In entom., irregularly spread or strewn over a surface: noting punetures, dots, or other small marks of sculpture or color. Compare dispersed. - Scattered eyes, eyes in which the lenses are unconnected, and arranged without definite order. This is the rudimentary cond i tion of the compound eyes as seen in many caterpillars, etc.- Scattered light, in optics, light which larly reflected from a surface that is not smooth or is broken up into a multitude of small surfaces. It is by scattered light that non-luminous objects are, in general, made visible. Tait , Light, § 78. scatteredly (skat'ėrd-li), adv . In a dispersed or diffused manner. [Rare.] scatterer (skat'er-ér), n. [ scatter , v., + obj. good.] A spendthrift. Which intimates a man to act the consumption of his own fortunes, to be a scatter -good; if of honey colour or red, he is a drunkard and a glutton. Sanders, Physiognomie (1653). ( Nares .) scatter-gunt (skat'er-gun), n. A shot-gun. [U. S.] scattering (skat'ėr-ing), n. [Verbal n. of scat ter , v.] 1. The act of sprinkling, strewing, or dispersing; dispersion. When we examine the Milky Way, or the closely compre ed clusters of stars of which my catalogues have recorded so many instances, this supposed equality of scat tering must be given up. Herschel , Philos. Trans., XCII. 495. 2. That which has been scattered or strewn abroad. The promiscuous scatterings of his common providence. South, Sermons, II. 378. ( Latham.) 3. One of a number of disconnected or fragmentary things. He has his sentences for Company, some scatterings of Seneca and Tacitus, which are good vpon all occasions. Bp. Earle, Micro-cosmographie, A Pretender to Learning. 4. The irregular reflection of light from a surface not perfectly smooth, or from many minute surfaces. The four principal proce es by means of which a ray of light may be polarised are reflexion, ordinary refraction, double refraction, and scattering by small particles. Spottiswoode, Polarisation, p. 2. scattering (skat'er-ing), p. a. 1. Separating and dispersing in all directions: as, a scattering flock of birds; a scattering shot. The sun Shakes from his noon-day throne the scattering clouds. Thomson, Spring, 1. 442. 2. Of rare or irregular occurrence; sporadic. Letters appearing in the record le frequently than five per cent. of these numbers have been regarded as scatter ing errors, and only the percentage of them all together has been given. Amer. Jour. Psychol., I. 408. 3. Miscellaneous; diversified: as, scattering votes.-4. Separated from the school, as fish: hence, sparse; scarce. [New Eng.] scatteringly (skat'er-ing-li), adv . In a scattered or dispersed manner; here and there. scatterling (skat'er-ling), n. [ scatter + -ling1 .] A vagabond; one who has no fixed abode. [Rare.] Many of them be such losells and scatterlings as that they cannot easely by any sheriff, constable, bayliff, or other ordinar ye officer be gotten, when they are challenged for any such fact. Spenser, State of Ireland. [ [New [N Eng.] scattery (skat'er-i), a. tered or dispersed; hence, sparse; scarce; few and far between. scatty (skat'i), a. [ scavenge Sallying forth at rise of sun,... to trace the current of the New River - Middle ton i an Stream!- to its scaturient source. Lamb , Newspapers Thirty-five Years Ago. scat uri gin oust (skat-u-rij'i-nus), a. [L. sca turiginosus , abounding in springs, scaturigi nes , gushing waters, spring-water, scaturire , gush out: see scaturient .] Abounding with springs. Imp . Dict.