spread

English Online Dictionary. What means spread‎? What does spread mean?

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English spreden, from Old English sprǣdan (“to spread, expand”), from Proto-Germanic *spraidijaną (“to spread”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)per- (“to strew, sow, sprinkle”).

Cognate with Saterland Frisian spreede (“to spread”), West Frisian spriede (“to spread”), North Frisian spriedjen (“to spread”), Dutch spreiden (“to spread”), Low German spreden (“to spread”), German spreiten (“to spread, spread out”), Norwegian spre, spreie (“to spread, disseminate”), Swedish sprida (“to spread”), Latin spernō, spargō, Ancient Greek σπείρω (speírō), Persian سپردن (sepordan, “to deposit”), English spurn.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spɹɛd/
• Rhymes: -ɛd

Verb

spread (third-person singular simple present spreads, present participle spreading, simple past and past participle spread)

1. (transitive) To stretch out, open out (a material etc.) so that it more fully covers a given area of space. [from 13th c.]

2. (transitive) To extend (individual rays, limbs etc.); to stretch out in varying or opposing directions. [from 13th c.] simple past and past participle of spread

3. (transitive) To disperse, to scatter or distribute over a given area. [from 13th c.]

   Synonym: sow

4. (intransitive) To proliferate; to become more widely present, to be disseminated. [from 13th c.]
5. (transitive) To disseminate; to cause to proliferate, to make (something) widely known or present. [from 14th c.]

   Synonym: sweep

6. (intransitive) To take up a larger area or space; to expand, be extended. [from 14th c.]

   Synonym: sweep

7. (transitive) To smear, to distribute in a thin layer. [from 16th c.]

8. (transitive) To cover (something) with a thin layer of some substance, as of butter. [from 16th c.]

9. To prepare; to set and furnish with provisions.
10. (intransitive, slang) To open one’s legs, especially for sexual favours. [from 20th c.]
    • 2003, Outkast, "Spread" (from the album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below):

      I don't want to move too fast, but / Can't resist your sexy ass / Just spread, spread for me; / (I can't, I can't wait to get you home)

Synonyms

• disseminate
• circulate
• propagate
• diffuse
• put about

Translations

Noun

spread (countable and uncountable, plural spreads)

1. The act of spreading.
2. Something that has been spread.
3. (cartomancy) A layout, pattern or design of cards arranged for a reading.
4. An expanse of land.
   • November 29, 1712, Andrew Freeport, a letter to The Spectator

     I have got a fine spread of improvable lands.

5. A large tract of land used to raise livestock; a cattle ranch.
   • 2005, Brokeback Mountain (film), 00:11:50:

     - Can't wait till I get my own spread and won't have to put up with Joe Aguirre's crap no more.
     - I'm savin' for a place myself.

6. A piece of material used as a cover (such as a bedspread).
7. A large meal, especially one laid out on a table.
8. (bread, etc.) Any form of food designed to be spread, such as butters or jams.
9. (military) A set of multiple torpedoes launched on side-by-side, slowly-diverging paths toward one or more enemy ships.
10. (prison slang, uncountable) Food improvised by inmates from various ingredients to relieve the tedium of prison food.

    Synonym: swole

11. An item in a newspaper or magazine that occupies more than one column or page.
12. Two facing pages in a book, newspaper etc.
13. A numerical difference.
14. (statistics) A measure of how far the data tend to deviate from the average.

15. (business, economics) The difference between the wholesale and retail prices.
16. (trading, economics, finance) The difference between the price of a futures month and the price of another month of the same commodity.
17. (trading, finance) The purchase of a futures contract of one delivery month against the sale of another futures delivery month of the same commodity.
18. (trading, finance) The purchase of one delivery month of one commodity against the sale of that same delivery month of a different commodity.
19. (trading) An arbitrage transaction of the same commodity in two markets, executed to take advantage of a profit from price discrepancies.
20. (trading) The difference between bidding and asking price.
21. (finance) The difference between the prices of two similar items.
22. (geometry) An unlimited expanse of discontinuous points.
23. The surface in proportion to the depth of a cut gemstone.
24. Excessive width of the trails of ink written on overly absorbent paper.
25. (gambling) The difference between the teams' final scores at the end of a sport match.

Synonyms

• straddle

Translations

Derived terms

Etymology 2

Blend of speed +‎ read.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: sprēd, IPA^(key): /spɹiːd/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /spɹid/
• Rhymes: -iːd
• Homophone: spreed

Verb

spread (third-person singular simple present spreads, present participle spreading, simple past and past participle spread)

2. (intransitive, transitive, debating slang) To speedread; to recite one's arguments at an extremely fast pace.

Noun

spread (plural spreads)

1. (debating slang) An act or instance of spreading (speedreading).

Related terms

Further reading

• spread on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Spreading (debate) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “spread”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “spread”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Anagrams

• spader, Spader, padres, drapes, dreaps, rasped, Persad, spared, Padres, parsed, repads

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English spread. Doublet of spargere.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsprɛd/
• Rhymes: -ɛd

Noun

spread m (invariable)

1. (trading, finance) the difference between returns or between quotations of multiple securities or of the same security over the course of a day
2. a contract awarding which offers the buyer the widest range of bargaining possibilities

Anagrams

• sperda

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English spread. Doublet of espargir.

Noun

spread m (plural spreads)

1. (business, economics) spread (the difference between the wholesale and retail prices)
2. (finance, economics) difference between the interest rate a bank charges to a client and the interest rate it pays