sprawl

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   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.

2. 2
   verb

   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 they have had too much heat, they hang without any ſtruggling.

3. 3
   noun

   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.

4. 4
   noun

   an ungainly posture with arms and legs spread about

5. 5
   noun

   an aggregation or continuous network of urban communities

6. 6
   verb

   sit or lie with one's limbs spread out

7. 7
   verb

   go, come, or spread in a rambling or irregular way

8. 8
   verb

   To scoot the legs backwards, so as to land on the upper back of an opponent attempting a takedown.

Etymology

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.