SPRINKLING

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does sprinkling mean? 

• SPRINKLING (noun)
  The noun SPRINKLING has 4 senses:

1. a small number (of something) dispersed haphazardly

2. a light shower that falls in some locations and not others nearby

3. the act of sprinkling water in baptism (rare)

4. the act of sprinkling or splashing water

  Familiarity information: SPRINKLING used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SPRINKLING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A small number (of something) dispersed haphazardly

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

scattering; sprinkling

Context example:

a sprinkling of grey at his temples

Hypernyms ("sprinkling" is a kind of...):

small indefinite amount; small indefinite quantity (an indefinite quantity that is below average size or magnitude)

Derivation:

sprinkle (distribute loosely)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A light shower that falls in some locations and not others nearby

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Synonyms:

scattering; sprinkle; sprinkling

Hypernyms ("sprinkling" is a kind of...):

rain shower; shower (a brief period of precipitation)

Derivation:

sprinkle (rain gently)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of sprinkling water in baptism (rare)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

aspersion; sprinkling

Hypernyms ("sprinkling" is a kind of...):

baptism (a Christian sacrament signifying spiritual cleansing and rebirth)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The act of sprinkling or splashing water

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

sparge; sprinkle; sprinkling

Context example:

a sparge of warm water over the malt

Hypernyms ("sprinkling" is a kind of...):

watering (wetting with water)

Derivation:

sprinkle (scatter with liquid; wet lightly)

 Context examples 

"Your sprinkling is all wrong," he complained next.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Someone had brought the water from the brook, and Lord John was sprinkling my head with it, while Challenger and Summerlee were propping me up, with concern in their faces.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Jupiter rules your ninth house of travel and will be in an especially jolly mood, sprinkling unexpected fun and warmth everywhere you go.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Administration of a veterinary medicinal product by placing in or sprinkling over a beehive.

(In Beehive Route of Administration, NCI Thesaurus)

He would then say, with a peculiar smile, more solemn than cheerful—And if I let a gust of wind or a sprinkling of rain turn me aside from these easy tasks, what preparation would such sloth be for the future I propose to myself?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Of the six score, fully half had seen service before, while a fair sprinkling were men who had followed the wars all their lives, and had a hand in those battles which had made the whole world ring with the fame and the wonder of the island infantry.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I trust that the labour and hazard of an investigation—of which the smallest results have been slowly pieced together, in the pressure of arduous avocations, under grinding penurious apprehensions, at rise of morn, at dewy eve, in the shadows of night, under the watchful eye of one whom it were superfluous to call Demon—combined with the struggle of parental Poverty to turn it, when completed, to the right account, may be as the sprinkling of a few drops of sweet water on my funeral pyre. I ask no more.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

At the new moon of February 23, Mars will be working hard for you, and Uranus, your guardian planet, will be sprinkling the entire situation with a number of surprises.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

For one, Mars will be in trine (a lovely aspect) to unpredictable Uranus, sprinkling that evening with a dusting of sparkling surprises, lifting your spirits, and making you realize when love is real, love lasts forever.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)