as in to spread
to cause to move outward and apart
He sat with his legs splayed apart. She splayed her fingers to show off her manicure.
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of splay
Pictured in January 2024, the soldier is splayed out in a makeshift field hospital in a winery near the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
—
Eli Wizevich, Smithsonian Magazine, 17 Apr. 2025
Officers found Williams splayed across the hood of a nearby car, suffering horrific injuries.
—Eric Umansky, ProPublica, 11 Mar. 2025
At two months old, he's splayed across her body, fast asleep, while other lambs walk over to sniff the lamb and human, as though wondering what's going on.
—William Lambers, Newsweek, 7 Mar. 2025
Their music splayed Ayers’ pillowy vibraphone tones across languid jazz-funk grooves that formed the bedrock for neo-soul—and, through sampling, much of West Coast hip-hop—to come.
—Jazz Monroe, Pitchfork, 6 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for splay
Eli Wizevich, Smithsonian Magazine, 17 Apr. 2025
Officers found Williams splayed across the hood of a nearby car, suffering horrific injuries.
—Eric Umansky, ProPublica, 11 Mar. 2025
At two months old, he's splayed across her body, fast asleep, while other lambs walk over to sniff the lamb and human, as though wondering what's going on.
—William Lambers, Newsweek, 7 Mar. 2025
Their music splayed Ayers’ pillowy vibraphone tones across languid jazz-funk grooves that formed the bedrock for neo-soul—and, through sampling, much of West Coast hip-hop—to come.
—Jazz Monroe, Pitchfork, 6 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for splay
Recent Examples of Synonyms for splay
Verb
-
Biden's cancer is characterized as having a Gleason score of 9, grade group 5, which would mean the cells look very different from healthy cells and are likely to grow and spread more quickly.—
Julia Gomez,
USA Today,
20 May 2025
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Measles was fully eliminated from the U.S. in 2000, according to the CDC, meaning the virus was not spreading within the country and new cases only came from people who contracted measles abroad and returned to the U.S.—
Antonio Pequeño IV,
Forbes.com,
20 May 2025
Verb
-
After a tumultuous on-and-off-again relationship, Tran and Brown officially split in late 2014.—
Alex Heigl,
People.com,
16 May 2025
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The song was released in 1973, only a few years after The Beatles split, highlighting how quickly the two reconnected.—
Hugh McIntyre,
Forbes.com,
16 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Splay.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/splay. Accessed 24 May. 2025.
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