verb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
Solano sputtered that there must be some mistake.
▪
The country's transition to democracy continues to sputter along.
▪
The engine sputtered and died.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
Chaos had been averted, though strikes in the public services sputtered on.
▪
He sputtered up and down the aisle, saying the man should be behind bars.
▪
In both instances the sputtering war in the world outside becomes something more personal within the artificial community of these isolated characters.
▪
Patients experience a sputtering downhill course and an inevitable loss of mobility.
▪
Since then, political parties have proliferated, but the transition to full democracy has sputtered along.
▪
The drummer passed out, the bassoonist dropped his bassoon, the trombonist sputtered and went sour.
▪
The engine sputtered to life with a corrupting puff of diesel exhaust.