as in 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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Recent Examples of splayed
His fingers splayed and writhed like a terrible mandible.
—
Douglas Stuart, New Yorker, 12 Apr. 2026
As the footage continues, the pair falls out of sight behind the white sedan for about a minute before the sedan suddenly speeds away, revealing one man splayed across the ground as the gunman appears to straddle him.
—Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News, 18 Mar. 2026
Isabelle hops, arms splayed upward, hits the water, and swims to Mom.
—Gerald Witt, AJC.com, 1 Mar. 2026
Jurors saw a photo of Saxon’s small mattress splayed on a bare concrete floor beside a case of bottled water and some Ensure protein drinks.
—Nancy Dillon, Rolling Stone, 25 Feb. 2026
Judges score the flips and spins, including pretzel-like shapes with skis splayed or crossed, before the skiers pull up at the last split second and slam skis-first into the landing area, kicking up a spray of snow.
—ABC News, 16 Feb. 2026
The entire western-facing wall of the house is glass—the valley and forest splayed out before us, in every shade of green imaginable.
—Devorah Lev-Tov, Condé Nast Traveler, 19 Jan. 2026
Also, there are no people and everything is compressed, as if a giant hand had come down from the sky and harmlessly splayed the three-dimensional world out into two, for easier viewing.
—Lori Waxman, Chicago Tribune, 2 Jan. 2026
Compacted into 137 bundles, that steel had to be meticulously splayed out in order to successfully loop around the roadbed, just before the Yerba Buena Tunnel.
—Katie Lauer, Mercury News, 22 Dec. 2025
Douglas Stuart, New Yorker, 12 Apr. 2026
As the footage continues, the pair falls out of sight behind the white sedan for about a minute before the sedan suddenly speeds away, revealing one man splayed across the ground as the gunman appears to straddle him.
—Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News, 18 Mar. 2026
Isabelle hops, arms splayed upward, hits the water, and swims to Mom.
—Gerald Witt, AJC.com, 1 Mar. 2026
Jurors saw a photo of Saxon’s small mattress splayed on a bare concrete floor beside a case of bottled water and some Ensure protein drinks.
—Nancy Dillon, Rolling Stone, 25 Feb. 2026
Judges score the flips and spins, including pretzel-like shapes with skis splayed or crossed, before the skiers pull up at the last split second and slam skis-first into the landing area, kicking up a spray of snow.
—ABC News, 16 Feb. 2026
The entire western-facing wall of the house is glass—the valley and forest splayed out before us, in every shade of green imaginable.
—Devorah Lev-Tov, Condé Nast Traveler, 19 Jan. 2026
Also, there are no people and everything is compressed, as if a giant hand had come down from the sky and harmlessly splayed the three-dimensional world out into two, for easier viewing.
—Lori Waxman, Chicago Tribune, 2 Jan. 2026
Compacted into 137 bundles, that steel had to be meticulously splayed out in order to successfully loop around the roadbed, just before the Yerba Buena Tunnel.
—Katie Lauer, Mercury News, 22 Dec. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for splayed
Verb
-
Phoenix spreads over a whopping 517 square miles, and that’s not even including adjacent towns like Scottsdale and Tempe.—
Chris Malloy,
Bon Appetit Magazine,
14 Apr. 2026
-
The Thirty Years’ War, which was concluded by the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648, spread across mainland Europe and killed some eight million people.—
Anthony Lane,
New Yorker,
13 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
Video shot in the town of Fallon showed shattered glass and food scattered on the floor in the aisles of a grocery store.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
13 Apr. 2026
-
But it’s scattered across teams, channels, and systems.—
Jarrod Martin,
Fortune,
13 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
The judge, Wendy Vitter, had split the case into two separate proceedings.—
Patrick Radden Keefe,
New Yorker,
13 Apr. 2026
-
In the 11th minute, SDFC threatened to take a 2-0 lead when Valakari split a pair of Minnesota defenders before blasting a low attempt from the top of the box.—
Kyle Kensing,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
12 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Splayed.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/splayed. Accessed 14 Apr. 2026.
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