spread
/spɹɛd/ verb B2- To stretch out, open out (a material etc.) so that it more fully covers a given area of space. · He spread his newspaper on the table.
- To extend (individual rays, limbs etc.); to stretch out in varying or opposing directions. simple past and past participle of spread · I spread my arms wide and welcomed him home.
- To disperse, to scatter or distribute over a given area. · I spread the rice grains evenly over the floor.
- To proliferate; to become more widely present, to be disseminated.
- To disseminate; to cause to proliferate, to make (something) widely known or present. · The missionaries quickly spread their new message across the country.
- To take up a larger area or space; to expand, be extended. · I dropped my glass; the water spread quickly over the tiled floor.
- To smear, to distribute in a thin layer. · She liked to spread butter on her toast while it was still hot.
- To cover (something) with a thin layer of some substance, as of butter. · He always spreads his toast with peanut butter and strawberry jam.
He/she/it spreads · Past spread · Past participle spread · -ing form spreading
Verb forms
- Base form
- spread
- He/she/it
- spreads
- Past
- spread
- Past participle
- spread
- -ing form
- spreading
An irregular verb: learn its past and past participle by heart.
Phrasal verbs and expressions
From the library
The “Avenue,” so called by the Newbridge people, was a stretch of road four or five hundred yards long, completely arched over with huge, wide-spreading apple-trees, planted years ago by an eccentric old farmer.
So she went to the cupboard and cut herself some bread, which she spread with butter.
The flowers had been too strong for the huge beast and he had given up at last, and fallen only a short distance from the end of the poppy bed, where the sweet grass spread in beautiful green fields before them.
A SHEPHERD driving his Sheep to a wood, saw an oak of unusual size full of acorns, and spreading his cloak under the branches, he climbed up into the tree and shook them down.
Other matches
Learn spread in real texts
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