scat
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“But she’s not a scat singer. She improvises more in the technique of the Baroque period, expanding and contracting phrases or adding trills that deviate from the melody.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
Researchers have set up game cameras to capture images of deer and coyotes, and they regularly collect scat from both species.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2025
Newly christened, she became known for scat singing, a vocal style that originated with ragtime - which enabled her to improvise melodies using her voice as an instrument.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2025
For music, the show has an original score by the veteran trombonist Craig Harris, played by a jazz band that includes three vocalists who do sometimes scat.
From New York Times ● Jun. 17, 2024
“You just go on and leave us be. Just you scat you and leave us be!”
From "Mississippi Trial, 1955" by Chris Crowe
![]()
She sang open-throated declarations, recited broken poetic verses, scatted with the authority of a jazz singer, moaned with bluesy intent, and occasionally let loose an unbridled shriek or giggle.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 4, 2026
Hancock sang identifiable words during “Come Running to Me,” but they were mutated by a vocoder, and most of the evening’s other vocals were scatted and altered.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 9, 2017
One scatted like a jazz singer, another embodied hip-hop, another the smooth and swiveling hip movements of a salsa.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2016
The beautiful public baths, just off Twenty-third Street on Asser Levy Place, across from Peter Cooper Village, are like a pun on the defeat of the rebel forces that scatted here, headed north.
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 25, 2015
Coming out of the river bottoms, I scatted up a long hogback ridge, and broke out on top in the flats.
From "Where the Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls
![]()
By rephrasing melodies, throwing in slang, using nonsense syllables, embracing scatting, and making it seem as if he was speaking directly to you, he changed the way people sang and thought about vocal performances.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 25, 2026
“It doesn’t really make sense. You just have to kind of follow the sound. I still remember the reception that I got from it. Angela Jackson said, ‘You’re scatting on the page.’
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 2025
A guest appearance by the actor and clown Bill Irwin brought out the vaudevillian side of the show with scatting wordplay that involved layering syllables and some hat choreography, too.
From New York Times ● Oct. 6, 2021
Scooby-Doo’s name came from Silverman, who had heard Frank Sinatra scatting “doo-be-doo-be-doo” on a recording of “Strangers in the Night,” and whose own name was used for Fred, the group’s ascot-wearing leader.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 13, 2020
We’ve been laying our voices down, catting and scatting, and following variations of the same notes for so long we didn’t always know we were doing it.
From "Gone Crazy in Alabama" by Rita Williams-Garcia
![]()