SPRAWL • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Sprawl

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/sprɔl/ Listen

noun

sprawl n. The position or state resulting from sprawling; as, he sat on the couch in a sprawl; uncontrolled urban sprawl.

verb

Sprawl v. i. (past & past part. sprawled; pres. part. sprawling)

To spread and stretch the body or limbs carelessly in a horizontal position; to lie with the limbs stretched out ungracefully.

To spread irregularly, as vines, plants, or trees; to spread ungracefully, as chirography.

To move, when lying down, with awkward extension and motions of the limbs; to scramble in creeping. "The birds were not fledged; but upon sprawling and struggling to get clear of the flame, down they tumbled."

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Etymology of 'Sprawl'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Sprawl" Quotes from Famous Books

... age-bent and blind, and others sprawl, And stagger in the Long-Knife's villages; And some are dead, and some have fled away, And some are lurking in the forest here, Sneaking, like ...

— Tecumseh: A Drama • Charles Mair

... the ray of candlelight that was fitfully and feebly capering on the windy blackness outside the open workshop of Crickledon, the carpenter, fronting the sea-beach. Mr. Tinnnan's house was inquired for. Crickledon left off planing; at half-sprawl over the board, he bawled out, "Turn to the right; right ahead; can't mistake it." He nodded to one of the cronies intent on watching his labours: "Not unless they mean to be bait for whiting-pout. Who's that for Tinman, I wonder?" ...

— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... where I'd ruther be— Needn't fence it in fer me! Jes' the whole sky overhead, And the whole airth underneath— Sorto' so's a man kin breathe Like he ort, and kind o' has Elbow-room to keerlessly Sprawl out len'thways on the grass Where the shadders thick and soft As the kivvers on the bed Mother fixes in the ...

— Standard Selections • Various

... he lived in—looking in at the window of the "sitting room" where the ancient, wispy landlady sat among her antimacassared chairs and the ridiculous tiny seashell ashtrays that overflowed after two butts. He wanted desperately to get in and sprawl in the huge bat-winged chair by the fire and stroke the enormous old gray cat that would leap up and trample and paw his stomach before settling down to grumble to ...

— Far from Home • J.A. Taylor

... too late. At top speed the auto struck the wayfarer, and before the boys' horrified eyes he was thrown high in the air, to fall, a confused sprawl of legs ...

— The Boy Inventors' Radio Telephone • Richard Bonner

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