sprawling

Verb

sprawl (third-person singular simple present sprawls, present participle sprawling, simple past and past participle sprawled)

1. To sit with the limbs spread out.
   • There was no special place for him or his little affairs, and he was forbidden to sprawl on sofas and explain his ideas about the manufacture of this world and his hopes for the future. Sprawling was lazy and wore out sofas, and little boys were not expected to talk.1888, Rudyard Kipling, “Baa Baa, Black Sheep”, in The Man Who Would Be King, and Other Stories, Wordsworth Editions, published 1994, →ISBN, page 159
2. To spread out in a disorderly fashion; to straggle.
   • The hatched young ones are ſodl to thoſe who breed them up, and theſe try in the following manner whether they are hatched too ſoon or not: they take hold the little ducks by the bill, and their bodies hang down ; if they ſprawl and extend their feet and wings, they are hatched in due time ; but if...1771, Johann Reinhold Foster, “Birds and Beasts”, in A Voyage to China and the East Indies, volume 2, A Short Account of the Chinese Husbandry, B. White, translation of original by Carl Gustav...

   Synonyms:

   splay

3. To scoot the legs backwards, so as to land on the upper back of an opponent attempting a takedown.

See all 6 meanings of sprawl