as in spreads
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 splays
The carrier unzips and splays out into hanging storage for your beauty items.
—
Olivia Young, Travel + Leisure, 11 Oct. 2025
Olivia Young, Travel + Leisure, 11 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for splays
Verb
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In particular, fire blight readily spreads from hawthorns to neighboring apples, as well as pear trees, and causes these trees to drop their blossoms, stop fruiting, display wilted stems and leaves, and develop other problems.—
Lauren Landers,
Better Homes & Gardens,
22 Oct. 2025
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Options strategy With an IV Rank of 47%, options prices are moderately elevated, making debit vertical spreads an efficient way to capture upside exposure.—
Tony Zhang,
CNBC,
22 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Regretting You essentially splits itself into two occasionally intersecting plots, that of Morgan and Jonah’s healing and of Clara’s nascent romance.—
Richard Lawson,
HollywoodReporter,
22 Oct. 2025
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Stretching the limits The clip is reportedly designed to showcase Oli’s stability, joint articulation as well as movement control, through a series of exercises including side bends, leg lifts and splits.—
Georgina Jedikovska,
Interesting Engineering,
17 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Splays.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/splays. Accessed 28 Oct. 2025.
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