sprawl

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From the review by Andrew Saint: "To judge whether sprawl is a symptom of global capitalism at its most rampant and wasteful … technical arguments must be addressed.

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Definitions (22)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. intransitive verb To sit or lie with the body and limbs spread out awkwardly.
  2. intransitive verb To spread out in a straggling or disordered fashion: untidy tenements sprawling toward the river.
  3. transitive verb To cause to spread out in a straggling or disordered fashion.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (11)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (38)

  • He was not quite sprawling – the sprawl is another characteristic of worldly power – on a couch. —  process 10
  • Being against sprawl is a reason to be against sprawl, not to be against bridges. —  BlueOregon
  • Hopefully, it will get people living back in the city again and offset the inexcusable urban sprawl which is destroying our countryside. —  Spectator Live
  • Tom Skaar, president of the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland, says council members think growth means "sprawl" -- so he wrote in a letter to Metro Council President David Bragdon. —  MaxRedline
  • David Foster sees the choice as not between wilderness and managed woodlands but between managed woodlands and sprawl, and he considers the former to be a much better buffer for wilderness areas. —  Climate Ark Climate Change & Global Warming RSS Newsfeed
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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Used in the same contextWord Family

sprawl:   sprawling ·  sprawled
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English sprawlen, from Old English sprēawlian, to writhe; see sper- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. Early modern English also sprall; from Middle English sprawlen, spraulen, sprawelen, spraullen, sprallen, from Anglo-Saxon spreáwlian (a rare and doubtful word, cited by Zupitza (“Studium der neueren Sprachen,” July, 1886) from a gloss): perhaps akin to Icelandic spraukla, sprökla, sprawl; cf. Swedish dial. spralla, sprala = Dan, sprælle, sprælde, sprawl, flounder: see sprackle and sprattle.
  2. from sprawl, v.
  3. Prob. diminutive of sprag or dial. English spray: see sprag, spray.
 

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/sprɔl/
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