A person who studies a subject in a superficial way or has only a slight knowledge of it.
〈旧〉浅尝辄止的人，（对某学科）只了解皮毛的人
Example sentencesExamples
Besides this, he also wrote tolerable poetry, but his taste was not pure, and he had his favourite authors and singular preferences; in a word, he was a literary smatterer, and a theatrical architect.
When reached in his London office, Newton declined to comment, saying only that he had ‘no use for little smatterers in mathematics.’
Better be proficient in one art than a smatterer in a thousand.
When people want a legal opinion in detail, they must address their communications to us, individually, and not to irresponsible smatterers, like the chief editor.
A man of true science uses but few hard words, and then only when none will answer his purpose; whereas the smatterer in science thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things.