Lexic.us

Definition of Spread-eagle

1. Adjective. With arms and legs stretched out and apart. "Lay spread-eagle on the floor"

2. Verb. Stretch out completely. "They spread-eagled him across the floor"

3. Verb. Stretch over. "His residences spread-eagle the entire county"

4. Verb. Execute a spread eagle on skates, with arms and legs stretched out.

5. Verb. Stand with arms and legs spread out.

6. Verb. Defeat disastrously. "The fighter managed to spread-eagle his opponent"

Definition of Spread-eagle

1. Adjective. Lying with arms and legs outstretched and separated. ¹

2. Adjective. (colloquial humorous) Characterized by a pretentious, boastful, exaggerated style; bombastic. ¹

3. Adverb. With arms and legs extended and spread. ¹

4. Verb. (transitive) To put into a spread-eagle position, with arms and legs extended and spread. ¹

5. Verb. (intransitive) To put one's body in a spread eagle. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Lexicographical Neighbors of Spread-eagle

sprayiest spraying sprayings spraylike spraypaint spraypainted spraypainter spraypainters spraypainting spraypaints

sprayproof sprays sprayskirt sprayskirts spread spread-eagle (current term) spread-eagled spread-out(a) spread eagle spread head

spread like wildfire spread limit spread out spread over spread spectrum communication spread spectrum communications spreadabilities spreadability spreadable spreadably

Literary usage of Spread-eagle

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Harleian Miscellany: Or, A Collection of Scarce, Curious, and by William Oldys, John Malham (1810)
"London, printed by M. Simmons, for Giles Calvert, at tbe Black Spread-Eagle, at the West End of Paul's, 1647. Quarto, containing fourteen pagei. ..."

2. The Harleian Miscellany: Or, A Collection of Scarce, Curious, and by William Oldys, John Malham (1810)
"... at the Spread-Eagle and Crown in, West. minster-hatt, 1685. Twelves, containing thirty-six pages. T, PROCEEDINGS UPON BILLS. The first Reading. ..."

3. The American of the Future: And Other Essays by Brander Matthews (1909)
"... SCREAM OF THE spread-eagle WHEN Joseph Rodman Drake wrote his impassioned lyric on the 'American Flag' he ended it with this resonant outburst: And fixt ..."

4. The American Quarterly Review by Robert Walsh (1837)
"London: Matthew Gillyflower, at the Spread Eagle in Westminster Hall, and James Partridge, Charing Cross: 1793. Tillage is an art of great antiquity, ..."

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