sprawl
An ungainly sprawling postureAn ungainly sprawling posture.
» Tom is sprawled out on his bed.
CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
3 senses(countable, uncountable)An ungainly sprawling posture.
an ungainly posture with arms and legs spread about
(countable, uncountable)A straggling, haphazard growth, especially of housing on the edge of a city.
Wuchern, Ausufern, Ausdehnung
разраста́ниеrazrastánije
(countable, uncountable)A defensive technique that is done in response to certain takedown attempts, where one scoots the legs backwards so as to land on the upper back of the opponent.
Examples
37 sentencesTranslations
3 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
Origin
From Middle English spraulen, from Old English spreawlian (“move convulsively”), ultimatelFrom 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.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: sprawlsSynonyms
3 synonyms- an ungainly posture with arms and legs spread about:sprawling
- an aggregation or continuous network of urban communities:conurbationurban sprawl
Word family
12 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable