Word.ws English Dictionary

spread

/spɹɛd/UK/spɹiːd/

spread verb: to stretch out, open out (a material etc.) so that it more fully covers a given area of space.

Verb (1)

spread (third-person singular simple present spreads, present participle spreading, simple past and past participle spread)

  1. (transitive) To stretch out, open out (a material etc.) so that it more fully covers a given area of space.
    • He spread his newspaper on the table.
  2. (transitive) To extend (individual rays, limbs etc.); to stretch out in varying or opposing directions. simple past and past participle of spread
    • I spread my arms wide and welcomed him home.
  3. (transitive) To disperse, to scatter or distribute over a given area.
    • I spread the rice grains evenly over the floor.
    Synonyms:
    sow, suffuse, pervade
  4. (intransitive) To proliferate; to become more widely present, to be disseminated.
    • Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine.[…]One thing that is true, though, is that murder rates have fallen over the centuries, as policing has spread and the routine carrying of weapons has diminished. Modern society may...2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845
    • As the Erzurum affair indicated, the janissaries in the provinces and in the capital city were in close touch, and thus the movements were quick to spread to Istanbul.2018, Pál Fodor, The Business of State. Ottoman Finance Administration and Ruling Elites in Transition (1580s–1615) (Studien zur Sprache, Geschichte und Kultur der Turkvölker; 28), Berlin: Klaus...
  5. (transitive) To disseminate; to cause to proliferate, to make (something) widely known or present.
    • The missionaries quickly spread their new message across the country.
    Synonyms:
    sweep
  6. (intransitive) To take up a larger area or space; to expand, be extended.
    • I dropped my glass; the water spread quickly over the tiled floor.
    Synonyms:
    sweep
  7. (transitive) To smear, to distribute in a thin layer.
    • She liked to spread butter on her toast while it was still hot.
  8. (transitive) To cover (something) with a thin layer of some substance, as of butter.
    • He always spreads his toast with peanut butter and strawberry jam.
  9. To prepare; to set and furnish with provisions.
    • to spread a table
    • And Enid brought sweet cakes to make them cheer, / And in her veil enfolded, manchet bread. / And then, because their hall must also serve / For kitchen, boil'd the flesh, and spread the board, / And stood behind, and waited on the three.1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Enid”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 21
  10. (intransitive, slang) To open one’s legs, especially for sexual favours.
    • This often sounds like the rap of a demented DJ: the way she moves has got to be good news, can't get loose till I feel the juice— suck and spread, bitch, yeah bounce for me baby.1984, Martin Amis, Money
    • Yes I wore a slinky red thing. Does that mean I should spread for you, your friends, your father, Mr Ed?1991, Tori Amos, Me and a Gun

Noun (1)

spread (countable and uncountable, plural spreads)

  1. The act of spreading.
    • No flower hath that kind of spread that the woodbine hath.1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted...
  2. Something that has been spread.
  3. A layout, pattern or design of cards arranged for a reading.
  4. An expanse of land.
    • November 29, 1712, Andrew Freeport, a letter to The Spectator
      I have got a fine spread of improvable lands.
  5. A large tract of land used to raise livestock; a cattle ranch.
    • - Can't wait till I get my own spread and won't have to put up with Joe Aguirre's crap no more.2005, Brokeback Mountain (film), 00:11:50
  6. A piece of material used as a cover (such as a bedspread).
    • Linen shawls and spreads show up in secondhand clothing stores like those in the row on St. Marks Place in New York City.1975, Douglas Matthews, Suzanne Wymelenberg, Susan Cheever Cowley, Secondhand is Better, page 166
  7. A large meal, especially one laid out on a table.
  8. (usually, bread) Any form of food designed to be spread, such as butters or jams.
    • Ferd liked to experiment with sandwich spreads ― the one he liked most was cream-cheese, olives, anchovy and avocado, mashed up with a little mayonnaise ― but Oscar always had the same pink luncheon-meat.1958 May, Avram Davidson, “Or All The Seas With Oysters”, in Galaxy Science Fiction
  9. A set of multiple torpedoes launched on side-by-side, slowly-diverging paths toward one or more enemy ships.
    • Johnston, meanwhile, has managed to get within five miles of its target, and fires a full spread of ten torpedoes. Minutes later, at least two, possibly three, tear the bow off the hapless cruiser Kumano. First blood, unbelievably, therefore, goes to the Americans.2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 18:01 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?, archived from the original on 03 Nov 2022
  10. (slang, uncountable) Food improvised by inmates from various ingredients to relieve the tedium of prison food.
    Synonyms:
    swole
  11. An item in a newspaper or magazine that occupies more than one column or page.
  12. Two facing pages in a book, newspaper etc.
Show 13 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. A numerical difference.
  2. A measure of how far the data tend to deviate from the average.
    • The spread is usually measured using standard deviation and variance.
  3. The difference between the wholesale and retail prices.
  4. The difference between the price of a futures month and the price of another month of the same commodity.
  5. The purchase of a futures contract of one delivery month against the sale of another futures delivery month of the same commodity.
  6. The purchase of one delivery month of one commodity against the sale of that same delivery month of a different commodity.
  7. An arbitrage transaction of the same commodity in two markets, executed to take advantage of a profit from price discrepancies.
  8. The difference between bidding and asking price.
  9. The difference between the prices of two similar items.
  10. An unlimited expanse of discontinuous points.
  11. The surface in proportion to the depth of a cut gemstone.
  12. Excessive width of the trails of ink written on overly absorbent paper.
  13. The difference between the teams' final scores at the end of a sport match.
    • College basketball games don't lack for gambling propositions—the moneyline, a straightforward wager on which team will win; the over-under gamble on the total number of points scored by both teams—but the most popular wager is the spread. The spread represents the predicted difference between the...2015 April 10, John Paul Rollert, “Vegas Odds”, in Harper's Magazine, New York, N.Y.: Harper's Magazine Foundation, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 20 Jan 2022

Verb (2)

spread (third-person singular simple present spreads, present participle spreading, simple past and past participle spread)

  1. (intransitive, transitive, debating slang) To speedread; to recite one's arguments at an extremely fast pace.
    • You're assuming that if someone spreads they aren't a good orator. That's flawed logic.2022 July 8, u/chromantical, “spreading is cringe and should be stopped”, in Reddit, r/Debate, archived from the original on 17 Dec 2023
    • In my first year on the circuit, I learned to spread and did decently well. I won most of my rounds, not that I could tell you how I did it.2022 September, Tess McNulty, “Both Sides Now”, in Harper's Magazine, New York, N.Y.: Harper's Magazine Foundation, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 Mar 2023

Noun (2)

spread (plural spreads)

  1. (debating slang) An act or instance of spreading (speedreading).
    • If debate is a game, then the execution of a "spread" is like a well-timed blitz in football. Convincing a judge that your opponents' arguments would cause human extinction is equivalent to a successful Hail Mary pass.2017 September 26, Jack McCordick, “The Corrosion of High School Debate—And How It Mirrors American Politics”, in America, New York, N.Y.: America Press Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original...
    • It's one L ur chillin just keep practicing read the ballets figure what you did wrong and practice with improvements in mind, get better at spreads and k theory debates.2023 February 27, u/Objective-Sugar8720, “Bad tournament, how do I cope?”, in Reddit, r/Debate, archived from the original on 17 Dec 2023

spread meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

spread in Hindi

to stretch out, expand
पसारना pasārnā

spread in Tamil

பரப்பு, விரி, பரவல், விரிவு

spread in Marathi

पसरायला

spread in Urdu

act of spreading
پھیلاو phailāv
More languagesFewer languages
spread in Bengali
বিছানো bichanō, প্রসার prôsar, বিস্তৃতি bistriti
spread in Telugu
వ్యాపించు vyāpiñcu, చిందు cindu, ఒడ్డు oḍḍu, సంకీర్ణము saṅkīrṇamu
spread in Malayalam
വിരിക്കുക virikkuka, പരത്തുക parattuka, പടരുക paṭaruka, പരക്കുക parakkuka
spread in Kannada
ಹರಡು haraḍu
spread in Punjabi
ਤਾਣਨਾ tāṇnā, ਸੰਚਾਰ sañcār, ਤਣਨਾ taṇnā
spread in Gujarati
ફેલાવો
spread in Odia
ବ୍ୟାପିବା byāpibā, ବିଞ୍ଚିବା biñcibā, ଛାଇବା chāibā
spread in Sanskrit
तनोति tanoti
spread in Sinhala
අතුරනවා aturanawā
spread in Assamese
বিয়পা bipa, বিয়পোৱা bipüa
spread in Tagalog
kumalat, ikalat, lumaki, pamahid
spread in Arabic
نَشَرَ našara, اِنْتِشَار intišār
spread in Malay
hampar, sebar, lepa
spread in Indonesian
sebar, menyebar, farak
spread in Persian
افشاندن afšândan
spread in Thai
แผ่ pɛ̀ɛ, กาง gaang, ถ่าง tàang, เหยียด yìiat

Examples of spread in a sentence

  • It's just you and me.” A sad smile spread across his face, and I could tell he wanted to believe me, but didn't.2018 June 25, L.P. Dover, Going for the Hole, Books by L.P. Dover, LLC:
  • I don't want to move too fast, but / Can't resist your sexy ass / Just spread, spread for me; / (I can't, I can't wait to get you home)2003, Outkast, "Spread" (from the album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below)
  • The spread represents the predicted difference between the two teams in the final score of the game.2015 April 10, John Paul Rollert, “Vegas Odds”, in Harper's Magazine, New York, N.Y.: Harper's Magazine Foundation, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived...

All 40 example sentences with spread

Synonyms of spread

1 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of spread

Forms of spread

Verb
third-person singular presentspreads
present participlespreading
past participlespread
pastspread
Noun
pluralspreads

Past tense of spread: spread

Plural of spread: spreads

Origin of spread

From Middle English spreden, from Old English sprǣdan (“to spread, expand”), from Proto-Germanic *spraidijaną (“to spread”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)per- (“to strew, sow, sprinkle”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian spreede (“to spread”), West Frisian spriede (“to spread”), North Frisian spriedjen (“to spread”), Dutch spreiden (“to spread”), Low German spreden (“to spread”), German spreiten (“to spread, spread out”), Danish sprede (“to spread”), Norwegian spre, spreie (“to spread, disseminate”), Swedish sprida (“to spread”), Latin spernō, spargō, Ancient Greek σπείρω (speírō), Persian سپردن (sepordan, “to deposit”). Doublet of spurn.

Blend of speed + read.

Words formed from spread

Phrases with spread

16 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with spread

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about spread

What does spread mean?
Spread means to stretch out, open out (a material etc.) so that it more fully covers a given area of space.
What is spread in Hindi?
Spread in Hindi is पसारना (pasārnā). See Spread meaning in Hindi.
How do you use spread in a sentence?
It's just you and me.” A sad smile spread across his face, and I could tell he wanted to believe me, but didn't.
What part of speech is spread?
Spread can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce spread?
Spread is pronounced /spɹɛd/.
What is the past tense of spread?
The past tense of spread is spread.

Words near spread in the dictionary

  1. sprayproof
  2. sprays
  3. sprays and prays
  4. sprayskirt
  5. sprayskirts
  6. spread
  7. spread bet
  8. spread bets
  9. spread betting
  10. spread eagle
  11. spread eagles

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spread (page history and authors); spread (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); spread (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); প্রসার (Bengali) (page history and authors); ఒడ్డు (Telugu) (page history and authors); പകരുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಹರಡು (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਤਣਨਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); spread (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ଛାଇବା (Odia) (page history and authors); අතුරනවා (Sinhala) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-spread.ogg.

Cite this entry: “spread.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spread. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.