to splay
- verb
- /spleɪ/
- When I'm just walking on a flat pavement with these shoes on, I feel my feet splaying, my toes spraying and I feel them grabbing on the push off.
- splayed legs
- splayed fingers
Sunlight goes from, you know, splays out in different colors.
- Sunlight goes from, you know, splays out in different colors.
- We've kind of taken them, splayed them out and set them flat.
- A very wide toe cap in the trainers is good to allow that foot to splay tends to hem our feet in with trainers.
- And they have them sit down with their legs splayed and like, Elder comes along with a really sharp rock.
- And I, I, I don't exactly know what the animal was, what the organs were and, and why they didn't splay out right.
- When I'm just walking on a flat pavement with these shoes on, I feel my feet splaying, my toes spraying and I feel them grabbing on the push off.
- With difficult questions, you kind of splay them out in a logical form, but there's, you look at them and there's, you don't see the heat.
- But sites are trained and vines espaliade splayed, still shivering in the web.
Examples
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When the technique is done right, they won't fall off and drop, they will just splay and give you wonderful, wonderful looking lashes.
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The legs of the early amphibians were splayed out to their sides, and their elbows and knees pointed up.
Academic text (2003) -
All right, and if you think it's something else, you can splay your cards out right now.
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And then what we're going to do is we're just going to splay out the roots.
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Primates could splay out their pads to create even more contact with the trees.
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My arms and legs were splayed out against the roof rack.
Fiction book (1995) -
The Creature kicks with splayed toes to keep himself afloat and upright.
Fiction book (1994) -
The result was unusual; his feet were wide, perhaps splayed from Alpine hikes in search of rare butterflies.
Fiction book (1995) -
Some days, Patricia walked with her feet splayed out because Frances said that was how ballerinas walked.
Fiction book (1991) -
The boys sat low in chairs, legs splayed out comfortably as they chatted.
Synonyms
To put a thin layer over a surface
To turn a body part outward from the middle
To move legs or feet outward from the hips
To become wider at one end like a dress or vase
To sit, stand, or move with legs spread wide
To move outward in many directions to cover a wide area
Antonyms
How Wide
Surface Forms
Etymology
Splay means 'to spread' or 'turn outwards', so picture fingers or toes opening wide like a fan. A helpful way to remember it is to think of display, which also shows things 'spread out', and that is why to splay is to spread limbs or parts outward.