Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Scattered or dispersed; hence, sparse; scarce; few and far between.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Tending to scatter or be scattered; loose, ragtag.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

scatter +‎ -y

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Examples

  • Not scattery vignettes like you've seen on LJ over the years, or even jumpy bits like are on the website; I plan to write out the whole story, and when it is posted, it will read like novel chapters.

    Odin's Day miashell 2009

  • The irrepressible little duckling is starring in his own story and is more pittery-pattery, skittery-scattery than ever.

    Archive 2008-11-01 MissPrism 2008

  • Now the more I felt my grown-up age and health and buoyant vigor, the surer I knew that the time was come for me to do some good with them; not to benefit the world in general, in a large and scattery way (as many young people set out to do, and never get any further), but to right the wrong of my own house, and bring home justice to my own heart.

    Erema Richard Doddridge 2004

  • He himself knew how to wait, but did this modern young man, so feather-pated and scattery?

    Swan Song 2004

  • So happened it with Master Mordacks, who of all born men was foremost, with his wiry fingers spread, to pass them through the scattery forelock of that mettlesome horse, old Time.

    Mary Anerley Richard Doddridge 2004

  • Yet there was no elation from the bridge crew, only concentration on the scattery viewscreen, murmured interchanges of essential information, and tension over all, like a sound pitched just above the range of hearing.

    THE WRATH OF KHAN VONDA N.McINTYRE 1990

  • Yet there was no elation from the bridge crew, only concentration on the scattery viewscreen, murmured interchanges of essential information, and tension over all, like a sound pitched just above the range of hearing.

    THE WRATH OF KHAN VONDA N.McINTYRE 1990

  • Yet there was no elation from the bridge crew, only concentration on the scattery viewscreen, murmured interchanges of essential information, and tension over all, like a sound pitched just above the range of hearing.

    THE WRATH OF KHAN VONDA N.McINTYRE 1990

  • Yet there was no elation from the bridge crew, only concentration on the scattery viewscreen, murmured interchanges of essential information, and tension over all, like a sound pitched just above the range of hearing.

    THE WRATH OF KHAN VONDA N.McINTYRE 1990

  • After geese have got tough, 'n' turkeys have got strong, 'n' lamb's got old, 'n' veal's pretty nigh beef, 'n' sparragrass's growin 'tall' n 'slim' n 'scattery about the head,' n 'green peas gettin' so big 'n' hard they'd be dangerous if you fired 'em out of a revolver, we get hold of all them delicacies of the season.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 21, July, 1859 Various

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