Word.ws English Dictionary

spraddle

Syllables: sprad·dle/ˈspɹædl̩/

spraddle verb: to spread apart (the legs).

Verb

spraddle (third-person singular simple present spraddles, present participle spraddling, simple past and past participle spraddled)

  1. (transitive) To spread apart (the legs).
    • [T]hey [scorpions] rely on pressure-sensing organs near the ends of each of their eight walking legs to detect subtle shock waves that propagate outwards, even through sand, when another creature passes by on the desert floor. According to [Philip H.] Brownell, the scorpion orients itself toward...1988, David Quammen, “Faces Unlike Ours”, in The Flight of the Iguana: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, →ISBN; Scribner trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y....
  2. (transitive) To spread apart the legs of (someone or something).
    • She brought the quail back, and while it was still alive, she split it from breastbone to tail, and spraddled it, kicking, over Granpa's snake bite. She held the kicking quail on Granpa's hand for a long time, and when she took it off, the quail had turned green all over its inside.1976, Forrest Carter [pseudonym; Asa Earl Carter], “A Dangerous Adventure”, in The Education of Little Tree, New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, →ISBN; paperback edition, Albuquerque, N.M.: University...
  3. (intransitive) To lie, move, or stand with legs spread.
    • Horace slunk into the kitchen. The stove, spraddling out on its four iron legs, was gently humming. Aunt Martha had evidently just lighted the lamp, for she went to it and began to twist the wick experimentally.1898 November, Stephen Crane, “His New Mittens”, in The Cornhill Magazine, volume V, number 29 (New Series), London: Smith, Elder & Co., 15 Waterloo Place, →OCLC, chapter II, page 634
    • I spraddled along the wharf and nearly fell into the water. I glanced at Charmian, and the way she walked made me sad. The wharf had all the seeming of a ship's deck. It lifted, tilted, heaved and sank; and since there were no handrails on it, it kept Charmian and me busy avoiding falling in.1911 June, Jack London, “The First Landfall”, in The Cruise of the Snark, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, page 69

Noun

spraddle (plural spraddles)

  1. A manner of walking with the legs spread out.

Examples of spraddle in a sentence

  • Still glowering, he spraddled out of the cabin with the boys after him, and presently indicated one of the small temporary cabins with a jerk of his thumb.1917, T[homas] S[igismund] Stribling, “The Dry Dock”, in The Cruise of the Dry Dock, Chicago, Ill.: The Reilly & Britton Co., →OCLC, pages...
  • "He'd be headin' for Wolf Canyon fast as he could spraddle.1935 December, Robert E[rvin] Howard, “The Apache Mountain War”, in Action Stories, New York, N.Y.: Fiction House, →OCLC; republished as...
  • The Jet Man [Yves Rossy], under the weight of his wing, spraddles out on all fours in a poof of dust and straw.2009 February, Eric Hagerman, “Wingman”, in Mark Jannot, editor, Popular Science, volume 274, number 2, Bonnier Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC...

Forms of spraddle

Verb
third-person singular presentspraddles
present participlespraddling
past participlespraddled
pastspraddled
Noun
pluralspraddles

Origin of spraddle

Uncertain; possibly from sprad, an obsolete dialectal past participle of spread; or a blend of sprawl + straddle or spread + straddle, or perhaps from Middle English *spraddelen; a frequentative form of Middle English spradden, spraden, sprēden (“to lay flat, spread; to distribute, scatter, sow”), from Old English sprǣdan (“to expand, spread; to outspread, stretch forth”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)per- (“to sow, sprinkle, strew”), equivalent to spread + -le. Compare also dialectal Norwegian spradla (“to flail, squirm, thrash about”).

Words formed from spraddle

Words that rhyme with spraddle

Questions about spraddle

What does spraddle mean?
Spraddle means to spread apart (the legs).
How do you use spraddle in a sentence?
Still glowering, he spraddled out of the cabin with the boys after him, and presently indicated one of the small temporary cabins with a jerk of his thumb.
What part of speech is spraddle?
Spraddle can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce spraddle?
Spraddle is pronounced /ˈspɹædl̩/ (UK).
What is the past tense of spraddle?
The past tense of spraddle is spraddled.

Words near spraddle in the dictionary

  1. Spracklen
  2. sprackles
  3. sprackling
  4. sprackness
  5. sprad
  6. spraddle
  7. spraddle-legged
  8. spraddled
  9. spraddlelegged
  10. spraddles
  11. spraddling

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spraddle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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