scattered p ppl also scatter. Cp OED ~ 2 'widely separated one from another ... spread over a wide area.' For sealing uses see 1933 GREENE 16 ... in an area of about 60 to 80 square miles, according as the seals are close or 'scattering.' See SCATTERING; cp NUMEROUS.
1 Located here and there; in the seal fishery, so widely dispersed as to be difficult to hunt successfully.
[1783] 1792 CARTWRIGHT iii, 7 I met with some scattered curlews, and killed six of them. [1785] ibid iii, 45 In crossing the bay we saw several grampuses, and seals, also birds pursuing some scattered caplin. 1851 [FEILD] 60 Mr Hoyles visited five or six different islands and harbours; in which were scattered settlers.
[1856] 1975 WHITELEY 116 Put out the seal nets—saw a great many scattered seals. 1882 TALBOT 20 For a day or two we passed in and out through skirts of ice, picking up scattered seals as we passed along, until at length we got into a large plain of loose ice interspersed with lakes of clear blue water. [1894 BURKE] 21 'Don't be picking up the scattered ones [shillings found among the silver thaw],' cried one of them [hard cases]; 'wait till you get on Water Street, in the thick of them.' 1895 GRENFELL 164 Work proceeds during the night by torchlight, and the scattered fires, with their ruddy glow on the heaps of dead seals and uncouth-looking figures at work, must present indeed a weird sight. [1900 OLIVER & BURKE] 10 Seals were fairly plentiful but scattered. 1924 ENGLAND 276 Men were out, running through drifts after a few scattered seals. 1937 DEVINE 39 Quinterin' [is] killing scattered seals while the ship is moving through loose ice, the men going over the side for the purpose.
2 Sporadic; isolated; single; occasional.
1887 BOND 16 We crept along slowly for several days, picking up a scattered seal here and there, but not many. [1897] 1927 DOYLE (ed) 72 "The Landfall of Cabot": And a devil for tobaccy, / With a scattered foxey whisker / Like an Upper Island cracky. 1902 Christmas Bells 2 A 'scattered' man from the 'Coves' was met going home with his jar. 1936 SMITH 45 During Christmas [we enjoyed] ourselves with the boys mummering and dancing, and a scattered game of 'forty-fives.' Ibid 85 We hauled [the trap] in good time, a scattered fish coming in 'meshed.' T 49-64 Course they used to have a scattered row, you know, a scattered fight—one crowd [with] the other. T 36/8-64 The roof would be covered with rines, and 'twould be tight apart from a scattered knothole in the rine. 1973 BARBOUR 92 At that time one would frequently hear the remark, 'It was an old time Bonnieventer weddin', a scatter gun all night.' 1981 Evening Telegram 24 Mar, p. 1 Men from seven ... vessels were picking up scattered hooded seals Monday.
3 Phr scattered bit.
[1906] GRENFELL 199 There was still more'n a scattered bit o' ice about. P 148-62 I used to box scatter bit.
scattered few
[c1894] PANL P4/14, p. 200 A scattered few is a very few, while a smart few is a great many. 1973 WADEL 85 [There are] other neighbourhoods where only 'a scattered few' are on welfare.
scattered one
1924 ENGLAND 89 You two men, there's a scattered one off to winnard. Get 'em! 1937 DEVINE 42 A fisherman. wishing to minimise the report of a good day's fishing may use the word in a deprecatory sense: 'There was a scattered one going, you know.' T 66/7-64 You would get [fish] sunburned, spite o' ya. Not very often, though. Might get scatter one sunburnt. C 70-12 Were the birds very thick? No, boy, but there was a scattered one. I killed four.
scattered time
1854 [FEILD] 57 [I asked] whether the inhabitants of Fortune and Griquet attended this service... I was told, 'scattered times,' and 'scattered' is the common term, or expression, in Newfoundland, for 'few and far between.' 1863 HIND [ii] 196 The poor English people on this part of the coast attend the service of their fisherman 'minister' at 'scattered times' during the winter months. 1920 WALDO 57 'Do you wash the children?' 'Scattered times, sir.' T 22-64 They always had the string on the goat coming behind them, see, to get them in. Scattered time they start milking him [in] a scattered place. T 50-64 You could haul a joint most anywhere, through the stumps and through the woods. Very scattered time I'd hitch up. T 210/11-65 They'd be tryin' to guess who it was. and a scattered time you'd get your [false] face pulled off, but not many times that'd happen.
