Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🧍 Arms and legs wide 🧍 To stretch out ⛸️ To skate wide 🏆 To defeat easily 🌍 To cover widely
to spread-eagle

to spread-eagle

8.3
To beat an opponent by a very large amount
  • phrasal verb
  • /ˈsprɛdˌiɡəl/
  • Informal
translation icon : aplastar
  • The home team managed to spread-eagle their rivals with a remarkable final score of 42–7.

Examples

  • If they keep playing this well, they’ll spread-eagle the rest of the league by mid-season.

  • The champion boxer spread-eagled his inexperienced opponent in less than three rounds.

  • The team was spread-eagled by their rivals in the championship.

  • Did they really spread-eagle the competition this year?

  • The favorite team spread-eagled their rivals, winning the match with a score of 50–10.

  • In an impressive performance, the local soccer club spread-eagled their opponents, dominating play throughout the game.

  • Many expected the defending champions to spread-eagle the competition this season based on their previous successes.

Synonyms

to rout
vsto spread-eagle
15 7.4

Defeat an enemy completely and force them to run away

wins by a large margin without causing flight or disorder
to shellack
vsto spread-eagle
  • Informal
3 8.5

To beat someone very badly in a game or match

is used for disastrous dominant defeats beyond only games
to spreadeagle
vsto spread-eagle
  • Slang
9.7

To beat someone by a very large amount in a game or contest

is the same meaning but written with a hyphen in older form

Antonyms

to lose
∞ 1.0

Fail to win a game or contest

How Decisive

rout
12 7.2
to spread-eagle
  • Informal
8.3
to drub
1 8.8
to beat
∞ 1.4

Surface Forms

spread-eagle infinitive
spread-eagled past
spread-eagled past participle
spread-eagling present participle
spread-eagles third person singular

Morphology

spread-eagle = spread + eagle (opaque) = spread + eagle

Although the image of being spread out is present, the idiomatic sports sense of a disastrous defeat is not reliably predictable from the component words.

Etymology

Spread-eagle can also mean to beat someone badly, and a helpful way to remember this is to imagine the winner leaving the loser flat and open like a fallen eagle with spread 'wings'. So to spread-eagle an opponent is to defeat them completely.