How to Use sputter in a Sentence

sputter

1 of 2 verb

• The motor sputtered and died.
• He was sputtering with rage.
• She sputtered an angry protest.
• The Colts lost all four games, sputtering down the stretch to a 4-12-1 record.
  — The Indianapolis Star, 12 May 2023
• The Sox went on to sputter, going 23-27 for the first two months of the season.
  — Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 6 July 2022
• The car sputtered out of the gate, but hit Autobahn speeds by the end.
  — Bryce Miller, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Feb. 2024
• The Hawkeyes’ offense crossed the 50-yard line just once during the game, sputtering most of the way.
  — Chris Hays, Orlando Sentinel, 1 Jan. 2024
• At some point, the balloon won’t be able to take in any more air and will pop or sputter out air.
  — Julia Ries, SELF, 12 Feb. 2024
• Each Roy child sputters a word salad of love and hurt and fury into the phone.
  — James Poniewozik, New York Times, 10 Apr. 2023
• The Rangers’ offense sputtered out just three hits and couldn’t catch up to fastballs.
  — Shawn McFarland, Dallas News, 2 Sep. 2023
• In that case, the current demand surge would sputter and die away.
  — James MacKintosh, WSJ, 31 May 2021
• Until two years ago, NIF sputtered well short of its goals.
  — Kenneth Chang, New York Times, 13 Nov. 2023
• The 49ers’ offense had sputtered for the game’s middle two quarters.
  — Dieter Kurtenbach, The Mercury News, 12 Feb. 2024
• The mixture may start to sputter, so be careful to avoid getting burned.
  — Washington Post, 26 Aug. 2021
• With a jeep and five soldiers in his C-47 Skytrain, one of the plane’s two engines began to sputter.
  — Sig Christenson, San Antonio Express-News, 28 Jan. 2022
• Take care: the mixture will bubble and sputter as the liquid is absorbed into the caramel.
  — Southern Living Test Kitchen, Southern Living, 13 Oct. 2023
• Any concern that the drive might sputter was assuaged when Brady found Edelman for 15 yards to the Falcons 25.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 13 Apr. 2021
• Global prices have fallen as demand sputtered in the United States and China — the two largest economies in the world.
  — Nicole Goodkind, CNN, 5 June 2023
• His boat, which has begun to sputter, now catches fire.
  — Vulture, 13 June 2023
• That's the sound of the radiator in my pre-war apartment in New York City sputtering on for the season.
  — Dianna Mazzone, Allure, 29 Nov. 2023
• With vaccines on the rise in many parts of the world, and fewer hosts to infect, the virus is starting to hit roadblocks and slowly sputter out.
  — Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 28 June 2021
• But that rally sputtered out, and oil prices have been falling in recent weeks.
  — Clifford Krauss, New York Times, 26 May 2023
• The home crowd was at its loudest on Moran’s foul line drive in the fifth inning as the Reds offense continued to sputter.
  — Charlie Goldsmith, The Enquirer, 23 Apr. 2022
• Professional sports figured out how to sputter back to life over the past three months.
  — Marc Stein, New York Times, 25 Oct. 2020
• Hopefully, the move won’t sputter and die when the public outrage calms.
  — George Skelton, Los Angeles Times, 17 Oct. 2022
• Patricia said, sputtering out some smoke and putting a hand on her chest.
  — Hazlitt, 26 July 2023
• This Panthers have had good seasons one year only to sputter the next.
  — Dave Hyde, sun-sentinel.com, 17 Apr. 2021
• Top 10 in the late Seventies, but began to sputter as the decade came to a close. Enter John Travolta.
  — Joseph Hudak, Rolling Stone, 7 May 2022
• As a whole, the Rangers offense continues to sputter and ranks only 18th in MLB in first-inning runs.
  — Dallas News, 26 July 2022
• In the race to the bottom of the valley aquifers, growers can pump so much that thousands of residential wells sputter and die.
  — Susie Cagle, Wired, 12 Apr. 2022

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sputter

2 of 2 noun

• The nice little roll the Rangers were on has kind of turned into a sputter.
  — Stefan Stevenson, star-telegram.com, 21 June 2017
• As the engines sputter and whine on the prison transport plane Jailbird.
  — Michael Lee Simpson, EW.com, 14 Dec. 2022
• That ratchets up the pressure to sink or swim -- or rather, soar or sputter -- strictly on its own terms.
  — Brian Lowry, CNN, 19 Aug. 2022
• The rolling rat-a-tat sputter of white and yolk dancing ecstatically in the pan.
  — Chris Morocco, Bon Appetit, 22 Mar. 2017
• Aaron Judge, as the Yankees’ band leader, would not let his group of misfits sputter.
  — Julian McWilliams, BostonGlobe.com, 13 Sep. 2022
• Moments later, the group heard a loud bang and sputter coming from the other boat, and saw a cloud of black smoke rising.
  — Washington Post, 2 June 2021
• The rolling rat-a-tat sputter of white and yolk dancing ecstatically in the pan.
  — Chris Morocco, Bon Appetit, 19 Sep. 2017
• Following the brief sputter, however, Creery bounced back to play his next four holes in one-under par and make the turn at one-over.
  — Chris Jeter, baltimoresun.com, 26 Sep. 2019
• Even as the world’s economic engines sputter, AmEx’s rebound from its brush with death has made Squeri even more bullish.
  — Jennifer Surane, Bloomberg.com, 13 Dec. 2022
• Their responses were mainly to sigh, sputter, snark, or scream.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 7 Aug. 2021
• But Speights gives Vogel an intriguing option if the team can’t get out and run or if its half-court offense sputters.
  — Josh Robbins, OrlandoSentinel.com, 15 Oct. 2017
• During the fourth quarter, the Georgia offense began sputter and allowed the Tigers to creep back into the contest.
  — Brett Shweky, sun-sentinel.com, 18 Nov. 2019
• Everything bogs down and the Irish offense sputters with a few three and outs, and everyone on the outside will fret about him, his playbook, the future.
  — Tom Noie, USA TODAY, 25 Aug. 2023
• As soon as the plane took off, witnesses recalled hearing the engine sputter and seeing the plane crash into Beards Creek.
  — Justin George, Washington Post, 26 Dec. 2022
• For now, though, the ever-dying Obamacare repeal drive is showing some sputters of new life.
  — Sy Mukherjee, Fortune, 18 Sep. 2017
• The Detroit Red Wings continued their sputter towards the finish line, losing for the second straight time to a team below them in the standings.
  — Helene St. James, Detroit Free Press, 25 Mar. 2023
• No buzzing sales banter and gossip, no sputter of yellow and white taxis or boda boda taxi bikes.
  — David McKenzie, CNN, 26 May 2018
• But will that ring true if the new offense sputters or if Jackson again misses vital games because of injury?
  — Childs Walker, Baltimore Sun, 13 July 2023
• Investors can still get their money back if the borrower’s stock sputters, though defaults remain a risk.
  — Daniel Kruger, WSJ, 10 Dec. 2018
• Sushiya’s traffic first came to a sputter early last year as some people began to avoid Asian restaurants due to misplaced fears of the spreading virus in China.
  — Claire Ballor, Dallas News, 19 Apr. 2021
• The Wildcats’ hope is that will help prevent an early offensive sputter, which factored into the slow start.
  — Matt Goul, cleveland.com, 2 Aug. 2019
• The tech giant is under pressure to build up new areas of business as growth in its bread-and-butter smartphone business sputters.
  — Tripp Mickle, WSJ, 20 Mar. 2019
• The generator finally comes alive with a sputter and roar.
  — The Indianapolis Star, 10 Apr. 2023
• The film debuted with a sputter, however, taking just $1.5 million for the weekend.
  — Patrick Brzeski, The Hollywood Reporter, 2 Oct. 2017
• And as hopes of a quick recovery sputter, fear is rising that a long-term collapse of downtown economies could soon become irreversible.
  — Washington Post, 25 Sep. 2020
• But the offense went into a complete sputter for much of that period -- and that, combined with Durant’s foul trouble, led to big problems.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 26 July 2021
• But the offense went into a complete sputter for much of that period -- and that, combined with Durant's foul trouble, led to big problems.
  — Tim Reynolds, Star Tribune, 25 July 2021
• The health agencies are ignoring the tiny droplets of virus that sputter and spray from our mouths, become aerosolized and then float away into the air, the scientists said, as a likely means of transmission.
  — Sandee Lamotte, CNN, 7 July 2020
• Anybody who simply watched East Carolina run up and down the field, and the offense sputter time after time in the fourth quarter, would arrive at that conclusion.
  — Kevin Reynolds, The Salt Lake Tribune, 1 Nov. 2022
• Terrell Pryor and Josh Doctson are not focal points in Washington’s offense, but if they get blanked, the offense sputters.
  — Andy Benoit, SI.com, 3 Oct. 2017

Last Updated: 3 May 2024