Definition of Spread-eagle

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

Generic synonyms: Extend, Stretch

2. Adjective. With arms and legs stretched out and apart. "Lay spread-eagle on the floor"
Similar to: Extended

3. Verb. Stretch over. "His residences spread-eagle the entire county"
Generic synonyms: Range, Straddle

4. Verb. Execute a spread eagle on skates, with arms and legs stretched out.
Category relationships: Athletics, Sport
Generic synonyms: Figure Skate

5. Verb. Stand with arms and legs spread out.
Generic synonyms: Sprawl

6. Verb. Defeat disastrously. "The fighter managed to spread-eagle his opponent"
Exact synonyms: Rout, Spreadeagle
Generic synonyms: Beat, Beat Out, Crush, Shell, Trounce, Vanquish
Derivative terms: Rout

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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