/spleɪ/
OriginPIE word
*dwís
The verb is derived from Middle English splaien, splayen (“to display; to spread out, unfurl (a flag, etc.); (cooking) to cut open (a fish) lengthwise and lay it open; (figurative) to appear; to spread”), an aphetic form of Middle English displaien, displayen (“to display”): see display.
The adjective and adverb are derived from the verb, or from splayfoot (noun) or splayfooted (adjective). The noun is derived from the verb.
- transitiveTo spread, spread apart, or spread out (something); to expand.
“Thiſſame ſo great a chaunge of the world, begoonne within a fewe yeares after Chriſt was putte to death, to be made generall and common through al the whold worlde, and withoute any maintenaunce or ſu”
“The Lydian maiden in her web did portray to her full / […] / Aſteriee ſtruggling with an Erne which did away hir beare, / And ouer Leda ſhe had made a Swan his wings to ſplay.”
“The tracks are laid with the inner rails only 10 in. apart, except at the half way point (North Walk) where they are splayed out to allow the cars to pass.”
- transitiveTo construct a bevel or slope on (something, such as the frame or jamb of a door or window); to bevel, to slant, to slope.
“When entrance and egress [through a door] are constant, it may be supposed that the valves will be absent or unfastened,—that people will be passing more quickly than when the entrance and egress are ”
- transitiveTo rearrange (a splay tree) so that a desired element is placed at the root.
- transitiveTo dislocate (a body part such as a shoulder bone).
- obsolete, transitiveTo unfurl or unroll (a banner or flag).
“Ye grounde yow vpon Godfrey, that grysly gargons face, / Your stondarde, Syr Olifranke, agenst me for to splay: […]”
“We rendred then with ſaftie for our liues, / Our Enſignes ſplayed, and manyging our armes, / With furder fayth, that from all kinde of giues, / Our ſouldiours ſhould remayne withouten harmes: […]”
- intransitiveTo have, or lie in, an oblique or slanted position.
- intransitiveTo spread out awkwardly; to sprawl.
“"What a finger!" says Mrs. Ponto, and indeed it was a finger, as knotted as a turkey's drumstick, and splaying all over the piano. When she had banged out the tune slowly, she began a different manner”
- Shropshire, transitiveSynonym of spay (“to destroy or remove the ovaries and/or uterus (of a female animal) to prevent pregnancy”).
“Sovves alſo are ſplaied as vvell as camels, but tvvo daies before, they be kept from meat; then hang they them by the forelegs for to make inciſion into their matrice [womb], and to take forth their ſ”
“Eſc[alus]. Hovv vvould you liue Pompey? by being a bavvd? […] the Lavv vvould not allovv it Pompey; nor it ſhall not be allovved in Vienna. / Clo[wne, i.e., Pompey Bum, a pimp]. Do's your VVorſhip mea”
“[T]o ſay nothing of the knovvn practice of ſplaying Svvine and Bitches; […]”
- Oblique, slanted.
- Turned outward; spread out.
- figurativelyCrooked, distorted, out of place.
“splay shoulders”
“In the German mind, as in the German language, there does seem to be something splay, something blunt-edged, unhandy, and infelicitous,—some want of quick, fine, sure perception, which tends to balanc”
“We have a fellow on board, an Irish-American, for all the world like a beggar in a print by [Georges] Callot; one-eyed, with great, splay crow's-feet round the sockets; […]”
- In an oblique or slanted manner; obliquely, slantedly.
- Of walking, etc.: with the feet turned outwards; in a splayfooted manner.
- An outward spread of an object such as a bowl or cup.
- also, attributiveA bevel, slant, or slope, especially of the frame or jamb of a door or window, by which an opening is made larger at one face of the wall than at the other, or larger at each of the faces than it is between them.
“The daylight was so lowered by the impervious roof of cloud overhead that it scarcely reached further into Lord Mountclere's entrance-hall than to the splays of the windows, even but an hour or two af”
- also, attributiveThe amount of such a bevel, slant, or slope.
- A widening of a minor road where it forms a junction with a major road to ensure that the view of traffic on the major road by drivers on the minor road is not obstructed.
- The view to the left or right which a driver on a minor road has of traffic on the major road; also, a plan showing this.
Formssplays(present, singular, third-person) · splaying(participle, present) · splayed(participle, past) · splayed(past) · more splay(comparative) · most splay(superlative) · splays(plural)