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p. p. of Spread. Chaucer.

imp. of Spread. Chaucer.

To spread and stretch the body or limbs carelessly in a horizontal position; to lie with the limbs stretched out ungracefully.

a sofa. Punching the squab of chairs and sofas. Dickens. On her large squab you find her spread. Pope.

ty; also, the canopy itself. [Obs.] His high throne, . . . under state Of richest texture spread. Milton. When he went to court, he used to kick away the state, and sit down by his prince cheek by jowl. Swift.

ports the branches or the head or top. After they are shot up thirty feet in length, they spread a very large top, having no bough nor twig in the trunk or the stem. Sir W. Raleigh. The lowering spring, with lavish rain, Beats down the slender stem and breaded grain. Dryden.

lant of the genus Sedum, esp. Sedum acre, which is common on bare rocks in Europe, and is spreading in parts of America. See Orpine. Virginian, or Ditch, stonecrop, an American plant (Penthorum sedoides).

Material, such as oyster shells, spread on the sea bottom for oyster spat to adhere to. [Local, U.S.] Stool of a window, or Window stool (Arch.), the flat piece upon which the window shuts down, and which corresponds to the sill of a door; in the United States, the narrow shelf fitted on the inside against the actual s…

To escape or stretch beyond proper limits, as the branches of a plant; to spread widely apart; to shoot too far or widely in growth. Trim off the small, superfluous branches on each side of the hedge that straggle too far out. Mortimer.

Something that shoots, or spreads out, beyond the rest, or too far; an exuberant growth. Let thy hand supply the pruning knife, And crop luxuriant stragglers. Dryden.

To spread or scatter. See Strew, and Strow. Chaucer.

To cause to extend in breadth; to spread; to expand; as, to stretch cloth; to stretch the wings.

To scatter; to spread by scattering; to cast or to throw loosely apart; -- used of solids, separated or separable into parts or particles; as, to strew seed in beds; to strew sand on or over a floor; to strew flowers over a grave. And strewed his mangled limbs about the field. Dryden. On a principal table a desk was op…

The act of scattering or spreading.

Spread equally over the surface; uniform; even. [Written also suent.] [Local, U.S. & Prov. Eng.] -- Su"ant*ly, adv. [Local, U.S. & Prov. Eng.]

That which is laid or spread under; that which underlies something, as a layer of earth lying under another; specifically (Agric.), the subsoil.

Uniformly or evenly distributed or spread; even; smooth. See Suant. Thoreau.

To overspread, as with a fluid or tincture; to fill or cover, as with something fluid; as, eyes suffused with tears; cheeks suffused with blushes. When purple light shall next suffuse the skies. Pope.

The act or process of suffusing, or state of being suffused; an overspreading. To those that have the jaundice, or like suffusion of eyes, objects appear of that color. Ray.

yer; to ask for earnestly and humbly; as, to supplicate blessings on Christian efforts to spread the gospel.