sprawl
English · Thesaurus
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Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
sprawl
- /spɹɔːl/ UK
- /spɹoːl/ Australia, British, New Zealand
- /spɹɔl/ US
- /spɹɑl/ US, cot caught merger
- /spɾɔl/ Scotland
- /spɾɔːl/ Wales
Rhymes with -ɔːl
Where it comes from
From Middle English spraulen, from Old English spreawlian (“move convulsively”), ultimately through a Proto-Germanic form cognate with *spreutaną (“to sprout”) from Proto-Indo-European *sper- (“to strew”). Compare North Frisian spraweli, Norwegian sprala, Swedish sprala.
verb sprawls · sprawling · sprawled
- To sit with the limbs spread out. There was no special place for him or his little affairs, and he was forbidden to sprawl on sofas and explain his ideas about the manufacture of this world and his hopes for the future. Sprawling was lazy and wore out sofas, and little boys were not expected to talk.
-
To spread out in a disorderly fashion; to straggle.
The hatched young ones are ſodl to thoſe who breed them up, and theſe try in the following manner whether they are hatched too ſoon or not: they take hold the little ducks by the bill, and their bodies hang down ; if they ſprawl and extend their feet and wings, they are hatched in due time ; but if
Similar: splay
- To scoot the legs backwards, so as to land on the upper back of an opponent attempting a takedown.
noun sprawls
- An ungainly sprawling posture.
- A straggling, haphazard growth, especially of housing on the edge of a city. He briefly compares the relative merits of providing for that growth by the usual method of urban sprawl and by directing it into suburban satellite communities with the integrity preserved and comes out strongly for the latter method.
- A defensive technique that is done in response to certain takedown attempts, where one scoots the legs backwards so as to land on the upper back of the opponent.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: straggle, scatter, dispersion, dispersal, disruption, spread, encroachment, loll, disarray, extension, disorganization, growth, spanning, sparsity, phasing, fabric
Translations
Every language
verb to spread out in disorderly fashion
| Español | desparramarse |
|---|---|
| Português | espalhar |
| Français | s'étaler, s'étendre |
| Deutsch | sich ausbreiten |
| Русский | раски́дываться raskídyvatʹsja, раски́нуться raskínutʹsja, простира́ться prostirátʹsja, простере́ться prosterétʹsja, растя́гиваться rastjágivatʹsja, растяну́ться rastjanútʹsja |
verb to sit with limbs spread out
| Español | desparrancarse, esparrancarse, despernancarse, espernancarse, descuajeringarse, descuajaringarse |
|---|---|
| Português | esparramar-se |
| Français | s'affaler |
| Deutsch | ausspreizen, grätschen |
| Italiano | stravaccarsi |
| Русский | разва́ливаться razválivatʹsja, развали́ться razvalítʹsja, разъезжа́ться razʺjezžátʹsja, разъе́хаться razʺjéxatʹsja |
noun haphazard growth
| Español | desparramo |
|---|---|
| Deutsch | Wuchern, Ausufern, Ausdehnung, Ausbreitung |
| Русский | разраста́ние razrastánije |
Talk about this word "sprawl." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/sprawl. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. sprawl. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/sprawl "sprawl." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/sprawl.Cite this
@misc{sprawl_2026,
title = {sprawl},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/sprawl},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
