strew
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to let fall in separate pieces or particles over a surface; scatter or sprinkle.
to strew seed in a garden bed.
- Synonyms:
- broadcast
-
to cover or overspread (a surface, place, etc.) with something scattered or sprinkled.
to strew a floor with sawdust.
-
to be scattered or sprinkled over (a surface).
Sawdust strewed the floor.
-
to spread widely; disseminate.
to strew rumors among the troops.
verb
Related Words
See sprinkle.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of strew
First recorded before 1000; Middle English strewen, Old English strewian; cognate with German streuen, Old Norse strā, Gothic straujan; akin to Latin sternere “to spread” ( see stratum)
Explanation
When you strew something, you scatter it all over the place. At a wedding, for example, the flower child's job is to strew the path with petals. One of the scariest parts of The Wizard of Oz is when the winged monkeys pounce on the Scarecrow and strew his insides all over the forest floor. Strewn is a more common form of the word, as in “after the tornado, the farm was strewn with debris.”
Vocabulary lists containing strew
Unit 1: Telling Details
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The Diary of Anne Frank
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List 7
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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.
A large section of the building facade is missing along its roofline, with rubble strew across the road below.
From BBC • May 1, 2023
The only sign that the damaged building is not abandoned are the bunches of freshly cut, fragrant grass that worshipers traditionally strew in places of worship.
From Washington Post • Apr. 12, 2023
Disturbed by statistics on Italian emigration that swelled to 84,000 in 1884 alone, Scalabrini wrote that the mass emigration and separation of families would “help strew white the lands of America with their bones.”
From Seattle Times • Oct. 9, 2022
Advancing age has done nothing but strew bouquets of honor, love and admiration on Plácido Domingo, L.A.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 18, 2016
So I offered to fetch fresh lavender to strew in Gertrude’s bedchamber, and that night I knelt again on the ground, gathering the silvery, purple-tipped fronds of lavender into my arms.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
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.
