Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To spread here and there; scatter or distribute.
  • transitive verb To distribute something over (an area or surface).
  • transitive verb To be or become dispersed over (a surface).
  • transitive verb To spread (something) over a wide area; disseminate.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To scatter; spread loosely: said of dry, loose, separable filings: as, to strew seed in beds; to strew sand on the floor; to strew flowers over a grave.
  • To cover in spots and patches here and there, as if by sprinkling or casting loosely about.
  • To spread a broad; give currency to.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To scatter; to spread by scattering; to cast or to throw loosely apart; -- used of solids, separated or separable into parts or particles
  • transitive verb To cover more or less thickly by scattering something over or upon; to cover, or lie upon, by having been scattered
  • transitive verb To spread abroad; to disseminate.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To distribute objects or pieces of something over an area, especially in a random manner.
  • verb To cover, or lie upon, by having been scattered.
  • verb transitive To spread abroad; to disseminate.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb spread by scattering (
  • verb cover; be dispersed over

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English strewen, from Old English strēowian; see ster- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English strewian.

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Examples

  • The word strew means to scatter -- as men scatter seed in sowing it.

    Barnes New Testament Notes 1949

  • Their language is free from bad rhetoric; the reasoning is cogent, but there is an absence of emotion and imagination; they contain few quotable things, and no passages of commanding eloquence, such as strew the orations of Webster and Burke.

    Brief History of English and American Literature 1886

  • Their language is free from bad rhetoric; the reasoning is cogent, but there is an absence of emotion and imagination; they contain few quotable things, and no passages of commanding eloquence, such as strew the orations of Webster and Burke.

    Initial Studies in American Letters 1886

  • With wild wood-leaves and weeds I ha 'strew'd his grave,

    Characters of Shakespeare's Plays William Hazlitt 1804

  • The most persuasive explanation is that the word comes from the Anglo-Saxon 'strew' meaning 'spread', a reference to the plant's ability to reproduce by sending out runners and layering, but there are many other tales in circulation including the idea that the berries used to be sold on straws in the manner of a fruity kebab.

    Life and style | guardian.co.uk 2010

  • With wild wood-leaves and weeds I ha 'strew'd his grave,

    Cymbeline 1609

  • 2722: With wild wood-leaues & weeds, I ha 'strew'd his graue

    Cymbeline (1623 First Folio Edition) 1623

  • We saw a pink quartz arrowhead and a scraper on one strew of fire-cracked rock.

    Bird Cloud Annie Proulx 2011

  • During the visit, as always, the site was spotless—no piles of rebar, no heaps of wood scraps, no mounds of dirt, no strew of nails and screws.

    Bird Cloud Annie Proulx 2011

  • In my experience, the portion of this that most needs a wish of good luck is getting the kids (and possibly husband) to not strew everything around the house out of the groupings – so good luck!

    Spring Cleaning « Bored Mommy 2010

Comments

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  • "it strewed the whole of the north-western coast of Europe with wrecks" - Leigh Hunt; Autobiography

    December 21, 2008

  • The legions of Armenia supported their fame in arms; but they were oppressed by the irresistible weight of the hostile multitude: the left wing of the Romans was thrown into disorder and the field was strewed with their mangled carcasses.

    - Gibbon, Decline and Fall, XXVI. iii.

    July 1, 2009

  • I suppose the simple past is strewed and p.p. strewn. I'm sure I've misused this in my time. I tend to favour irregular constructions.

    October 10, 2011