spread

(sprĕd)

v. spread, spread·ing, spreads

v.tr.

1. To open to a fuller extent or width; stretch: spread out the tablecloth; a bird spreading its wings.

2. To make wider the gap between; move farther apart: spread her fingers.

a. To distribute over a surface in a layer: spread varnish on the steps.

b. To cover with a layer: spread a cracker with butter.

a. To distribute widely: The tornado spread destruction.

b. To make a wide or extensive arrangement of: We spread the bicycle parts out on the floor.

c. To exhibit or display the full extent of: the scene that was spread before us.

5. To cause to become widely seen or known; scatter or disseminate: spread the news; spread the beam of the flashlight.

a. To prepare (a table) for eating; set.

b. To arrange (food or a meal) on a table.

7. To flatten (a rivet end, for example) by pounding.

v.intr.

1. To be extended or enlarged: The farm fields spread to the horizon.

2. To move over an area, be distributed, or be widely dispersed: The troops spread out across the field. The volcano's ash spread over the continent.

3. To become known or prevalent over a wide area: The word spread fast.

4. To be exhibited, displayed, or visible in broad or full extent: The vista spread seemingly to infinity.

5. To become or admit of being distributed in a layer: This paint spreads really well.

6. To become separated; be forced farther apart: The land masses spread until there was an ocean between them.

a. The act or process of spreading: the spread of disease.

b. Dissemination, as of news; diffusion.

a. An open area of land; an expanse.

b. A ranch, farm, or estate.

3. The extent or limit to which something is or can be spread: The tree's canopy has a spread of 50 feet.

4. A cloth covering for a bed, table, or other piece of furniture.

5. Informal An abundant meal laid out on a table.

6. A food to be spread on bread or crackers.

a. Two facing pages of a magazine, newspaper, or book, considered as a unit.

b. An article or advertisement running across two or more columns of a newspaper or magazine.

a. A difference, as between two figures or totals: What's the spread between tallest and shortest?

b. A position taken in two or more options or futures contracts in order to profit from a change in their relative prices.

c. The difference between the price asked and bid for a particular security.

d. The difference in yields between two fixed-income securities, as between short-term and long-term bonds.

9. A number of points offered to equalize the chances of winning in a wager on a competition, usually between sports teams. Also called point spread.

10. Wingspread.

Idiom:

spread (oneself) thin

To work on too many projects: overextend oneself.

[Middle English spreden, from Old English -sprǣdan (as in tōsprǣdan, to spread out); see sper- in Indo-European roots.]

spread′a·bil′i·ty n.

spread′a·ble adj.

spread′a·bly adv.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Spreading

See Also: GROWTH, PERVASIVENESS

(Anxiety was) as contagious as a yawn —Barbara Lazear Ascher, New York Times/Hers, October 23, 1986
Blown up [with fever] like a tire —Elena Poniatowska
(Excuses) breaking out like pimples —Marge Piercy
Breed like guinea pigs —Raymond Chandler
Catch happiness as quickly as others catch colds —Storm Jameson
Catching like fire in dry grass —William Dean Howells
Contagious like the gladness of a happy child —Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Excitement swept through Jalna [the estate which is the setting for a series of De La Roche novels] like a forest fire —Mazo De La Roche
Expand like air in a pressure chamber —Penelope Gilliatt
Gather like dust on a windowsill —Anon
Multiply like troubles —Marge Piercy
Passed around [German measles] like a dish of cool figs at the first rehearsal —Reynolds Price
(Houses) popping up everywhere like the heat rash. Like pimples —George Garrett
Spread a thought … like butter on toast —Carlos Fuentes
(Feel her pleasure deepening and) spreading like a chord struck in all octaves at once, sustained, played, and then held and held till it slowly faded into its overtones —Marge Piercy
(She looked at me, recognition) spreading like a rash —Sharon Sheehe Stark
(Pain) spreading like lava —John Braine
Spreading [throughout her system] … like poison dye —Margaret Millar
In the mystery novel, The Fiend, the author uses the simile to describe a key character’s growing alertness to a dangerous situation.
(Affection … ) spread like an epidemic through the room —Jean Stafford
Spread like an unconfirmed rumor —Elyse Sommer
Spread like a quenchless fire —Percy Bysshe Shelley
Spread … like a tiny spray of ink on a piece of blotting paper —Franz Werfel
Spread like butter under a knife —Lawrence Durrell
Spread like dandelions after spring rain —Marilyn Ross about growth of directories, Publishers Weekly, June 5, 1987
(But they cling and) spread like lichen —Elizabeth Bishop
Spread like mushrooms after a fresh spring rain —Anon
Mushrooms have long lent themselves to quick growth comparisons. A variation: “Grow like toadstools.”
Spread like mushrooms across an unsuspecting garden —Tom Robbins
Spread like pancake batter on a hot griddle —Elyse Sommer
Spread like the desert —Henry James
(Silence) spread … like water that a pebble stirs —Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Spread out like a doily —Alma Stone
Spread out (the sun) like a jellyfish —John Steinbeck
(I saw the vineyards) spread out like wings —Eudora Welty
Spreads faster than panic in a plane —Donald Seaman
Spreads like a sigh —Anon
(Love that) spreads like a stain of ink in absorbent cloth —Diane Wakoski
As poet Wakoski links the spreading stain with love in her poem, My Little Heart Pops Out, so W. H. Auden uses “Ruin spreading like a stain” in Something Is Bound to Happen.
Spreads like good news —Slogan for Satinwax, Economic Laboratory
Spread through like a clumsy, uninvited guest who is obese and eats too much —Lorrie Moore
The descriptive frame of reference in Moore’s novel, Self-Help, is cancer.
(Enemies … are) sprouting (around me) like tulips —Peter Benchley

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	spreading - process or result of distributing or extending over a wide expanse of space spread change of location, travel - a movement through space that changes the location of something diffusion - the spread of social institutions (and myths and skills) from one society to another dispersion, scattering - spreading widely or driving off invasion - (pathology) the spread of pathogenic microorganisms or malignant cells to new sites in the body; "the tumor's invasion of surrounding structures" irradiation - (physiology) the spread of sensory neural impulses in the cortex radiation - the spread of a group of organisms into new habitats
	2.	spreading - the opening of a subject to widespread discussion and debate airing, dissemination, public exposure transmission - communication by means of transmitted signals circulation - the dissemination of copies of periodicals (as newspapers or magazines) propagation, extension - the spreading of something (a belief or practice) into new regions
	3.	spreading - act of extending over a wider scope or expanse of space or time spread extension - act of expanding in scope; making more widely available; "extension of the program to all in need" circulation - the spread or transmission of something (as news or money) to a wider group or area dispersal, dispersion, dissemination, diffusion - the act of dispersing or diffusing something; "the dispersion of the troops"; "the diffusion of knowledge" strewing, scatter, scattering - the act of scattering decentralisation, decentralization - the spread of power away from the center to local branches or governments