to sprawl
27
4.6
- verb
- /sprɔl/
:
extenderse
- The weeds began to sprawl across the garden, overtaking the flowers.
- a sprawling city
- sprawling suburban areas
- sprawling slums
So if I say an orchard sprawls across the valley, I haven't said wide shot.
- So if I say an orchard sprawls across the valley, I haven't said wide shot.
- So as this plant continues to grow out and up and sprawl, it's actually going to require more root mass.
- But those sites have now been leapfrogged and leapfrogged again as we've just continued to sprawl and they now have a relatively central location.
- And the issue with that is that the space could be better used for growing other things and they can be kept in containers and they won't be even if they do sprawl.
Examples
-
Below them, the wonders of Synnoria sprawled, pristine and heartbreakingly beautiful beneath the dome of blue.
Fiction book (1992) -
Well, a lot can go wrong if you let it sprawl and spread because just like mint, anywhere where the plant touches soil, it'll set down new roots.
-
So as this plant continues to grow out and up and sprawl, it's actually going to require more root mass.
-
The wilderness rose up to it and sprawled around, no longer wild.
-
Isn't it bad enough around here without you sprawling all over the place?
-
Benches that belonged in city parks sprawled across the small waiting area.
Fiction book (1996) -
Just to the west of those settlements lay the sprawling hunting lands that numerous Creek communities claimed as theirs.
Academic text (2014) -
Sam, Molly, and Carl are sprawled out on the floor, eating from cartons of Chinese food.
Fiction book (1990) -
Halfway through the morning, Fort Stockton sprawled dry and dusty in brittle sunlight.
Fiction book (1993) -
We floated through islands of lily pads and under the sprawling weeping willows.
Fiction book (1995)
Synonyms
104
4.4
To cause people and things, like a crowd or fog, to spread over a wide area
89
2.8
To move apart and cover a wider area
40
5.5
To spread out and reach many people or places
8
6.4
To move slowly and get separated from the main group
4
6.3
To spread things loosely and messily across an area
To grow or spread in a thin, uneven, untidy way
To move outward in many directions to cover a wide area
To stretch across a large area
Phrasal Verbs
Compounds
- Specialized
5
4.9
The unplanned spread of a city into nearby countryside that makes houses and shops far apart
How Spread Out
Surface Forms
Etymology
Sprawl comes from an old word that meant 'to spread out', like the common word spread. So to sprawl across land or a wall is to grow or move outwards in a loose, irregular way, covering a wide area.