2. To utter words hastily and indistinctly; to speak so
rapidly as to emit saliva.
They could neither of them speak their rage, and so
fell a sputtering at one another, like two roasting
apples. --Congreve.
3. To throw out anything, as little jets of steam, with a
noise like that made by one sputtering.
Like the green wood . . . sputtering in the flame.
--Dryden.