Meaning & use
spat
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Meanings
nouncountableinformal
A short, petty argument, usually between people who know each other well.
Grammar: Countable: a spat, a few spats; often followed by over or with.
Patterns
- a spat over something
- a spat with someone
- a spat between people
The two neighbors had a spat over whose tree was blocking the light.
A silly spat about the thermostat left them not talking all evening.
Reports of a spat between the co-stars turned out to be exaggerated.
verbtransitive or intransitive
Past tense and past participle of spit: sent saliva or something else out of the mouth, or said something angrily.
Grammar: Past form of spit in British English and common in American English as well; spat out, spat at.
Patterns
- spat something out
- spat at someone
He tasted the soup and spat it out.
The cat hissed and spat at the dog.
'Get out of my sight,' she spat.
noununcountabletechnicalspecialist
The young of an oyster or similar shellfish, especially when it has just settled on a surface to grow.
Grammar: Uncountable and used mainly in fishing and shellfish farming.
The farmers hang ropes in the bay so the oyster spat can attach to them.
A cold spring reduced the amount of spat that survived.
Word forms
| plural | spats |
|---|
Common combinations
- a public spat
- The two politicians had a public spat on live television.
- a lovers' spat
- It was only a lovers' spat, and they made up by dinner.
- a spat over
- The brothers had a spat over who would drive.
- a petty spat
- A petty spat about dishes ended with both of them laughing.
- patch up a spat
- They patched up their spat with a quick apology.
Synonyms and how they differ
- tiff
- Tiff is almost the same, but it sounds slightly gentler and a bit more old-fashioned than spat.
- squabble
- A squabble is noisy bickering about something trivial, often among several people, while a spat is usually brief and between two.
- quarrel
- Quarrel is the general word and can be serious, whereas spat always implies a minor disagreement.
- row
- Row is a British word that can describe a loud, heated argument and is stronger than spat.
Opposites
Word family
- spit verb
- the base verb whose past tense is spat
- spitting noun
- the act of ejecting saliva
- spitting image noun
- an idiom for someone who looks exactly like another person
Commonly confused: spat or spate? spat or splat?
spat vs spate
A spate is a sudden rush of similar events, like a spate of burglaries. A spat is a small argument.
spat vs splat
Splat imitates the sound of something wet hitting a surface. It has nothing to do with arguing.
Practice
The roommates had a brief ___ about the dishes but were laughing again an hour later.
Choose one answer.
A spat is a small, short argument, which fits something resolved within an hour. A feud or war is long and serious, and a spate is a run of events.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “spat”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.