spread out
verb, adjective
Forms spreads out spreading out
- verb (idiomatic, intransitive) Become further apart. “The police spread out to search a wider area.”
- verb (idiomatic, transitive) To place items further apart. “Spread the cards out and then turn two of them over at random.”
- adjective Far apart, not close to each other, extended over an expanse of space or time.
- adjective Covering a wide area of space or long period of time.
Synonyms
spaced out thin diffuse dispersed incompact loose noncompact scattered sparse uncompact widespread spread fan out string out scatter expand turn out splay rotate disperse dissipate unfold open
Etymology
Analytic form of earlier outspread.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “spread out”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details