Word.ws English Dictionary

spread oneself thin

spread oneself thin verb: to commit oneself to too many projects, so that there is little chance of completing them all satisfactorily.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To commit oneself to too many projects, so that there is little chance of completing them all satisfactorily.

Forms of spread oneself thin

third-person singular presentspreads oneself thin
present participlespreading oneself thin
past participlespread oneself thin
pastspread oneself thin
alternative formspread oneself too thin

Questions about spread oneself thin

What does spread oneself thin mean?
Spread oneself thin means to commit oneself to too many projects, so that there is little chance of completing them all satisfactorily.
What part of speech is spread oneself thin?
Spread oneself thin is a verb.
What is the past tense of spread oneself thin?
The past tense of spread oneself thin is spread oneself thin.

Words near spread oneself thin in the dictionary

  1. spread limit
  2. spread limits
  3. spread one's legs
  4. spread one's net wide
  5. spread one's wings
  6. spread oneself thin
  7. spread oneself too thin
  8. spread operator
  9. spread operators
  10. spread out
  11. spread spectrum communication

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spread oneself thin (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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