spraddle
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
Etymology
Origin of spraddle
1625–35; origin uncertain; compare Norwegian dialect spradla squirm, flail
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
At Utah State University, he sent the discus on trajectories exceeding 180 ft. from the awkward spraddle that marks his stance.
From Time Magazine Archive
I watched her spraddle down the aisle and out through the little corridor before I dared risk the accident of a backward turn of that funny green hat.
From The Haunted Pajamas by Francis Perry Elliott
"And all the good hard dollars just waiting for someone to spraddle them around!" said Mr. Bunner with a note of pathos in his voice.
From The Woman in Black by E. C. (Edmund Clerihew) Bentley
And then they stay doormen forever, standing spraddled outside the door, their backs straight as furled umbrellas.
From New York Times ● Apr. 22, 2010
Overnight refineries spraddled the shore of the Persian Gulf, pipelines crawled past ancient caravan trails to the Mediterranean.
From Time Magazine Archive
They exchanged them for ten $2 tickets, and spraddled their money across the next two races.
From Time Magazine Archive
The only way he could write was with both legs spraddled across the typewriter, lolling back in an armchair.
From Time Magazine Archive
It was uncomfortable and his legs were spraddled and his body was very sore.
From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
Then he hit he tack, and I heard him holler and caught a glimpse of him spraddling up as I disappeared through the door.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
The Dutch girl passed at a spraddling gallop, setting a dog at a chicken condemned to death.
From A Yankee from the West A Novel by Opie Percival Read
It is narrow, and the man who is addicted to the habit of "spraddling" feels as if he were tied hand and foot.
From In Pastures New by George Ade
But all this is only the outside of the old mahogany high-boy with its meerschaum-pipe polish, spraddling legs, and rattling handles.
From The Little Gray Lady 1909 by Francis Hopkinson Smith
He was still couched there, spraddling ridiculously on his stomach, with his legs outstretched in a sawbuck pattern, as we came away.
From Paths of Glory Impressions of War Written at and Near the Front by Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury) Cobb
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
