Definitions

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

  • verb Present participle of patter.
  • noun Groupings of frequent irregularly repeated sounds of moderate magnitude and lower-than-average pitch.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word pattering.

Examples

  • Lights fizzing onto the pavement, I felt the rain pattering down by my shoes.

    Bitchin' about being a bitch. « 2008

  • Strike the ends of the fingers irregularly on the desk (to imitate the rain pattering on the roof of a building.) 2.

    The Golden Book of Favorite Songs 1915

  • I slept soundly for a long time; then I waked up and found that, instead of rain pattering against the roof, and darkness everywhere, it was quite light.

    Beautiful Joe: An Autobiography 1893

  • Do you remember, Traverse, the low attic where we used to sleep, and how on stormy nights we used to listen to the rain pattering on the roof, within two or three inches of our faces, and how we used to be half afraid to turn over for fear that we should bump our heads against the timbers of the ceiling?

    The Hidden Hand 1888

  • She dreamed of electronic books and showers of golden coins pattering gently over the two of them as they lay coiled in a passionate embrace.

    Cyberbooks Bova, Ben, 1932- 1989

  • She dreamed of electronic books and showers of golden coins pattering gently over the two of them as they lay coiled in a passionate embrace.

    Cyberbooks Bova, Ben, 1932- 1989

  • It is a thud if the pressure be more acute, and the pattering, which is almost identical to the effect produced by a drop of water rolling on the inside of a sensitive ear, occurs when there is a double or treble intermission.

    Inferences from Haunted Houses and Haunted Men John William Harris

  • If you'll put a lid on telling others how to play, you'll be able to hear the tintinnabulation of coins pattering into your bags.

    WoW.com 2009

  • As we advanced, I heard a kind of pattering above my head.

    Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea 2003

  • The form _patrying cove_ seems to suggest a derivation from 'pattering' or 'muttering' -- the Pater - noster, up to the time of the Reformation, was recited by the priest in a low voice as far as 'and lead us not into temptation' when the choir joined in.

    Musa Pedestris - Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes [1536 - 1896] John S. Farmer

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.