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Spreading   /sprˈɛdɪŋ/   Listen
verb
Spread  v. t.  (past & past part. spread; pres. part. spreading)  
1.
To extend in length and breadth, or in breadth only; to stretch or expand to a broad or broader surface or extent; to open; to unfurl; as, to spread a carpet; to spread a tent or a sail. "He bought a parcel of a field where he had spread his tent." "Here the Rhone Hath spread himself a couch."
2.
To extend so as to cover something; to extend to a great or greater extent in every direction; to cause to fill or cover a wide or wider space. "Rose, as in a dance, the stately trees, and spread Their branches hung with copious fruit."
3.
To divulge; to publish, as news or fame; to cause to be more extensively known; to disseminate; to make known fully; as, to spread a report; often accompanied by abroad. "They, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country."
4.
To propagate; to cause to affect great numbers; as, to spread a disease.
5.
To diffuse, as emanations or effluvia; to emit; as, odoriferous plants spread their fragrance.
6.
To strew; to scatter over a surface; as, to spread manure; to spread lime on the ground.
7.
To prepare; to set and furnish with provisions; as, to spread a table. "Boiled the flesh, and spread the board."
To spread cloth, to unfurl sail. (Obs.)
Synonyms: To diffuse; propagate; disperse; publish; distribute; scatter; circulate; disseminate; dispense.



Spread  v. i.  (past & past part. spread; pres. part. spreading)  
1.
To extend in length and breadth in all directions, or in breadth only; to be extended or stretched; to expand. "Plants, if they spread much, are seldom tall." "Governor Winthrop, and his associates at Charlestown, had for a church a large, spreading tree."
2.
To be extended by drawing or beating; as, some metals spread with difficulty.
3.
To be made known more extensively, as news.
4.
To be propagated from one to another; as, the disease spread into all parts of the city.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Spreading" Quotes from Famous Books



... look with suspicion on any system which turns out half-educated men with the same diplomas as the fully educated, thinking that such methods of slurring over differences are likely to do more harm by discouraging the ambition to attain what is distinguished than good by spreading wide a thin veneer of culture. In particular it will distrust the present huge overgrowth of courses in government and sociology, which send men into the world skilled in the machinery of statecraft and with minds sharpened to the immediate demands of special groups, ...
— The Unpopular Review, Volume II Number 3 • Various

... might become extinct. Others, living only in swamps of a certain humidity, would, if they survived at all, probably undergo visible changes of appearance. While still greater alterations would occur in the plants gradually spreading over the lands newly raised above the sea. The animals and insects living on these modified plants, would themselves be in some degree modified by change of food, as well as by change of climate; and the modification would be more marked where, from the dwindling or ...
— Essays: Scientific, Political, & Speculative, Vol. I • Herbert Spencer

... each object of surprise 'Lest Fancy's formful visions should deceive 'In moon-light paths, or glooms of falling eve, 'This then's the moment when my heart should try 'To scan thy motionless deformity; 'But oh, the fearful task! yet well I know 'An aged ash, with many a spreading bough, '(Beneath whose leaves I've found a Summer's bow'r, 'Beneath whose trunk I've weather'd many a show'r,) 'Stands singly down this solitary way, 'But far beyond where now my footsteps stay. 'Tis true, thus far I've come with heedless ...
— The Farmer's Boy - A Rural Poem • Robert Bloomfield

... kind and especially of a contagious nature is supposed to be due to the agency of some very powerful epidemic spirits, who ascend the river, spreading the infection, and eluding at the same time, the diuta in pursuit. When the priests decide that all efforts to secure aid of the good deities are unavailing, they determine to propitiate the evil epidemic spirits in the following manner: A small raft of bamboo, 1 meter by 5 meters in ...
— The Manbos of Mindano - Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII, First Memoir • John M. Garvan

... in the shade of a spreading beech-tree reclining, Meditatest, with slender pipe, the Muse of the woodlands. We our country's bounds and pleasant pastures relinquish, We our country fly; thou, Tityrus, stretched in the shadow, Teachest the woods to resound with the name of ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


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