Word.ws English Dictionary

spready

spready adjective: tending to spread horizontally.

Adjective

spready (comparative more spready, superlative most spready)

  1. Tending to spread horizontally.
    • The spready Beech, and dangling Sycomores
      Were clad in tender leaves and shady shiver,1602, William Basse, Three Pastoral Elegies of Anander, Anetor, and Muridella, Elegie II, in R. Warwick Bond (editor), The Poetical Works of William Basse, London: Ellis & Elvey, 1893, p. 49
    • The walls are covered with good Massimos, and the spready tapestry-coloured canvas of Lucas Giordaino and Solimene.1837, Frank Hall Standish, chapter 25, in The Shores of the Mediterranean, volume 1, London: R. Lumley, page 283
  2. Having a large surface area in proportion to its weight.
    • A fine spready hide is also obtained from the Hereford breed, these being favored by harness and belting makers.1912, Hides and Skins: From the Animal’s Back to the Tannery Door, Chicago: Shoe and Leather Weekly, “The Hid and Skin Trade in Great Britain,” p. 132
  3. Having a tendency to spread more easily.
    • These bacteria form large, spready colonies.

Noun

spready (plural spreadies)

  1. (dated) A spready hide.
  2. (informal) A spreadsheet.

Examples of spready in a sentence

  • I should use very thick worsted and make very big, loopy, spready stitches.1913, Gouverneur Morris, chapter 11, in If You Touch Them They Vanish, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, page 125:
  • Things about my place were more spready than high, myself; my house, the sheep-dogs, and Dolf, the Persian cat, whose silver fleece parted down the centre of his back and fluffed wide.1944, Emily Carr, “Attic Eagles”, in The House of All Sorts:

Forms of spready

Adjective
comparativemore spready
superlativemost spready
Noun
pluralspreadies

Origin of spready

From spread + -y.

Words that rhyme with spready

8 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about spready

What does spready mean?
Spready means tending to spread horizontally.
How do you use spready in a sentence?
I should use very thick worsted and make very big, loopy, spready stitches.
What part of speech is spready?
Spready can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near spready in the dictionary

  1. spreadsheetlike
  2. spreadsheets
  3. spreadsheety
  4. spreadwing
  5. spreadwings
  6. spready
  7. spreagh
  8. spreaghs
  9. spreath
  10. spreathe
  11. spreathed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spready (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-spready.wav.

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