spreadeagle
spreadeagle is the alternative spelling of spread-eagle.
Meaning of spread-eagle
Adjective
spread-eagle (comparative more spread-eagle, superlative most spread-eagle)
- Lying with arms and legs outstretched and separated.
- Characterized by a pretentious, boastful, exaggerated style; bombastic.
- Our former townsman, Mr. G. F. Train, has recently made a tremendous spread-eagle speech in England, upon the occasion of the reopening of trade between Liverpool and New Zealand […]c. 1857, unknown author, from Boston Gazette, quoted in George Francis Train, Spread-eagleism, page 88 (1859)
Forms of spreadeagle
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more spreadeagle |
| superlative | most spreadeagle |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | spreadeagles |
| present participle | spreadeagling |
| past participle | spreadeagled |
| past | spreadeagled |
Questions about spreadeagle
- What is spreadeagle the alternative spelling of?
- Spreadeagle is the alternative spelling of spread-eagle.
Words near spreadeagle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: spreadeagle (page history and authors); spread-eagle (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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Cite this entry: “spreadeagle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spreadeagle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.