scattered

scattered
    adj 1: occurring or distributed over widely spaced and irregular
           intervals in time or space; "scattered showers";
           "scattered villages"
    2: lacking orderly continuity; "a confused set of instructions";
       "a confused dream about the end of the world"; "disconnected
       fragments of a story"; "scattered thoughts" [syn: {confused},
       {disconnected}, {disjointed}, {disordered}, {garbled},
       {illogical}, {scattered}, {unconnected}]
    

Scattered \Scat"tered\, a.
   1. Dispersed; dissipated; sprinkled, or loosely spread.
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   2. (Bot.) Irregular in position; having no regular order; as,
      scattered leaves.
      [1913 Webster] -- {Scat"tered*ly}, adv. --
      {Scat"tered*ness}, n.
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Scatter \Scat"ter\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Scattered}; p. pr. &
   vb. n. {Scattering}.] [OE. scateren. See {Shatter}.]
   1. To strew about; to sprinkle around; to throw down loosely;
      to deposit or place here and there, esp. in an open or
      sparse order.
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            And some are scattered all the floor about.
                                                  --Chaucer.
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            Why should my muse enlarge on Libyan swains,
            Their scattered cottages, and ample plains?
                                                  --Dryden.
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            Teach the glad hours to scatter, as they fly,
            Soft quiet, gentle love, and endless joy. --Prior.
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   2. To cause to separate in different directions; to reduce
      from a close or compact to a loose or broken order; to
      dissipate; to disperse.
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            Scatter and disperse the giddy Goths. --Shak.
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   3. Hence, to frustrate, disappoint, and overthrow; as, to
      scatter hopes, plans, or the like.
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   Syn: To disperse; dissipate; spread; strew.
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143 Moby Thesaurus words for "scattered":
      alienated, all up with, anarchic, arsy-varsy, ass-backwards,
      balled up, beat, beaten, bested, bollixed up, broadcast, chaotic,
      cheeseparing, chinchy, chintzy, confounded, confused, defeated,
      deflected, deflective, detached, diffracted, diffractive, diffuse,
      diffused, disarticulated, discomfited, disconnected, discrete,
      disengaged, disjoined, disjoint, disjointed, disjunct, dislocated,
      dispersed, dispread, disseminated, dissipated, distorted,
      distributed, disunited, divided, divorced, done for, done in, down,
      estranged, exiguous, fallen, fixed, flectional, flexed, floored,
      fouled up, galley-west, helter-skelter, higgledy-piggledy,
      hors de combat, hugger-mugger, in a mess, inflective, infrequent,
      isolated, jumbled, lambasted, lathered, licked, meager, miserly,
      mixed up, mucked up, muddled, niggardly, on the skids, outdone,
      overborne, overcome, overmastered, overmatched, overpowered,
      overridden, overthrown, overturned, overwhelmed, panicked,
      piddling, poor, put to rout, rare, refracted, refractile,
      refractive, refrangible, removed, routed, ruined, scant, scanty,
      scarce, screwed up, scrimping, scrimpy, segregated,
      seldom met with, seldom seen, separated, sequestered, settled,
      shut off, silenced, skew, skewed, skimble-skamble, skimping,
      skimpy, skinned, skinned alive, slim, snafu, sparse, sporadic,
      spotty, spread, sprinkled, stampeded, stingy, straggling, straggly,
      strewn, strown, thin, tight, topsy-turvy, trimmed, trounced,
      undone, upset, upside-down, whelmed, whipped, widespread,
      worsted