Meaning

8 senses
  1. (countable, uncountable)The spawn of shellfish, especially oysters and similar molluscs.

  2. (countable, uncountable)A juvenile shellfish which has attached to a hard surface.

  3. (in the plural, often)A covering or decorative covering worn over a shoe.

    Gamasche, Überschuh

    ге́траgétra, гама́шаgamáša, штибле́таštibléta

  4. (Australia, UK)A piece of bodywork that covers the upper portions of the rear tyres of a car.

    Kotflügel

  5. A drag-reducing aerodynamic fairing covering the upper portions of the tyres of an aeroplane equipped with non-retractable landing gear.

  6. A brief argument, falling out, quarrel.

    get into a trivial spat over punctuality

    have a vicious spat with the cousins

    Wortwechsel, Zank, Streit

    спорspor, размо́лвкаrazmólvka, ссо́раssóra

  7. A light blow with something flat.

  8. An obsolete unit of distance in astronomy (symbol S), equal to one billion kilometres.

More definitions
  • a young oyster or other bivalve
  • a cloth covering (a legging) that covers the instep and ankles
  • a quarrel about petty points

Examples

4 sentences
  1. When it comes to marital spats, there are usually two sides to the story.

  2. In schools everywhere sports-wear is all spats and shorts.

  3. When it comes to marital spats, there's usually two sides to the story.

  4. Our P.E. kit was just shorts but now it's spats from today.

Translations

7 languages
Русский
By meaning 2
covering worn over a shoe:
quarrel:
Deutsch
By meaning 3
covering worn over a shoe:
automotive: piece of bodywork:
quarrel:

Origin

Uncertain; perhaps related to spit. Shortening of spatterdash, from spatter + dash. 1779.

Uncertain; perhaps related to spit.

Shortening of spatterdash, from spatter + dash. 1779.

1804. American English, probably imitative.

Attested from 1823.

From Latin spatium (“space”).

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: spats
Singularspat
Pluralspats

regular

Synonyms

8 synonyms
Close in meaning

Word family

1 related words
Derivedspatfall

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
spat — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto