scatter
v.v. to throw or drop things in different directions so they cover a wide area. It can also describe a group of people or animals moving away from each other quickly.
v. to cause a group of objects or people to separate and move in diverse directions. Often used to describe the distribution of seeds or the dispersal of a crowd.
The wind will scatter the leaves across the lawn.
The farmer began to scatter seeds over the freshly tilled soil before the rain started.
As the sirens grew louder, the protesters began to scatter into the narrow side streets to avoid the approaching police line.
From Middle English scateren, skateren, also schateren, * probably a variant of shatter, which is imitative; or from Old English sceaterian, probably from a dialect of Old Norse, possibly ultimately related to Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to cut, split, shatter”). Compare Middle Dutch scheteren (“to scatter”), Low German schateren, Dutch schateren (“to burst out laughing”); and is apparently remotely akin to Ancient Greek σκεδάννυμι (skedánnumi, “scatter, disperse”). and Tocharian B kät- (“to scatter, sow seeds”). Doublet of shatter.
The verb is both transitive (to scatter something) and intransitive (the crowd scattered).
The papers scattered everywhere by the wind.The papers were scattered everywhere by the wind.When an outside force like wind moves the objects, the passive voice is required; 'scattered' alone implies the objects moved themselves.