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
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
During this particularly artsy weekend, more than 600 artists turn the streets of downtown Lake Worth Beach into a temporary open-air museum with larger-than-life chalk murals splayed across Lake and Lucerne Avenues.
—Skye Sherman, Southern Living, 22 Dec. 2025
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
The clip accompanying the Facebook post starts with the 600-pound gator splayed out on a Florida road as several uniformed people approach it.
—Kelli Bender, PEOPLE, 5 Dec. 2025
With his eyes rolled back in his head and his hand splayed in front of him, Will stops them each mid-air and kills them instantly.
—Katie Campione, Deadline, 26 Nov. 2025
On the album cover, she’s splayed across a blue-gray carpet in a brown sweater and sheer tights.
—Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 21 Nov. 2025
Another video shared the same day showed multiple men in tactical vests loading into a vehicle with a similar Mexican flag splayed across the hood.
—Ximena Bustillo, NPR, 29 Oct. 2025
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
During this particularly artsy weekend, more than 600 artists turn the streets of downtown Lake Worth Beach into a temporary open-air museum with larger-than-life chalk murals splayed across Lake and Lucerne Avenues.
—Skye Sherman, Southern Living, 22 Dec. 2025
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
The clip accompanying the Facebook post starts with the 600-pound gator splayed out on a Florida road as several uniformed people approach it.
—Kelli Bender, PEOPLE, 5 Dec. 2025
With his eyes rolled back in his head and his hand splayed in front of him, Will stops them each mid-air and kills them instantly.
—Katie Campione, Deadline, 26 Nov. 2025
On the album cover, she’s splayed across a blue-gray carpet in a brown sweater and sheer tights.
—Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 21 Nov. 2025
Another video shared the same day showed multiple men in tactical vests loading into a vehicle with a similar Mexican flag splayed across the hood.
—Ximena Bustillo, NPR, 29 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for splayed
Verb
-
Almost immediately after oversight of TikTok’s US operations changed, misinformation started to spread about changes to the app’s new terms of service, including those that applied to location sharing and data collection, Fiesler said.—
Scottie Andrew,
CNN Money,
27 Jan. 2026
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Families who never qualified say their costs are rising, too, as insurers spread the increases across the entire market.—
Mahsa Saeidi,
CBS News,
27 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
Instead of dotting the same black scrim, like pinholes in a two-dimensional theater backdrop, the stars were scattered through space at dramatically varying distances, a vast swarm of them filling every last corner of an even vaster, more numinous, and emphatically three-dimensional darkness.—
Michael Pollan,
The Atlantic,
26 Jan. 2026
-
Your press should not feel random or scattered.—
Becca Brazil,
Rolling Stone,
26 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Their relationship hasn't been without bumps — the pair briefly split in 2015 — but the couple has managed to weather the ups and downs.—
Stephanie Sengwe,
PEOPLE,
13 Jan. 2026
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For a splurge, split a stateroom in The Haven by Norwegian, a ship-within-a-ship concept offering luxury accommodations and 24-hour butler service.—
Lauren Dana Ellman,
Travel + Leisure,
13 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Splayed.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/splayed. Accessed 29 Jan. 2026.
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