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
Synonym Usage
See sprinkle.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
strewsimple
-
strewssimple
-
have strewedperfect
-
have strewnperfect
-
has strewedperfect
-
has strewnperfect
-
am strewingprogressive
-
are strewingprogressive
-
is strewingprogressive
-
have been strewingperfect progressive
-
has been strewingperfect progressive
Past
-
strewedsimple
-
had strewedperfect
-
had strewnperfect
-
was strewingprogressive
-
were strewingprogressive
-
had been strewingperfect progressive
Future
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.
See Examples For:
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
The VanderMeer, in trying to tidy up, will create more piles and also decoratively strew books across his desk and night stand.
From New York Times ● Apr. 15, 2021
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
Those who go in knowing the outcomes of the AEC proceedings and Strauss’ Cabinet bid will see past the red herrings that Nolan occasionally strews across the path of history.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 19, 2023
Liontas strews her own prose with aborted explanations: “Litza knew not to suggest that they drive together, so.”
From Slate ● Jul. 10, 2015
She strews italics across almost every page, to denote both direct quotation and poetic emphasis, and you’re sometimes confused about which she intends.
From New York Times ● Jan. 25, 2011
In Act 2, rubble from the wrecked proscenium strews the stage, the remnants of the Minstrels' Hall in the Wartburg castle, where Tannhaeuser takes part in a song contest.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 13, 2010
They damn the "lying yankee scrawl," Torn from thine hand, it strews the wave,— They force thee, trembling, to the yawl.
The one-night hedonistic release is one of the world’s largest New Year’s celebrations and leaves Copacabana’s famed 2.4 miles of sand strewed with trash.
From New York Times ● Jan. 1, 2024
Elvis' actual house is smaller than you'd think and kinda gives off grandpa vibes with the overly carpeted rooms and hallways, and bric-a-brac strewed about.
From Salon ● Jan. 22, 2023
The stage: just a shelf strewed with rubble.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 28, 2022
“He left the field strewed with Army tacklers who had a shot at him and came up empty-handed,” sports columnist Shirley Povich wrote in The Post.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 30, 2019
Rosaleen let me bring it home, right into the living room, where I strewed a box of Quaker Oats on the floor for it to eat and she didn’t raise a word of protest.
From "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
Yehia Hassan is on the verge of tears as he surveys the filth and broken furniture strewn across the front room of his beloved Luton home.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
In one heavily damaged neighbourhood, Rana Nasrallah surveyed her destroyed home, the rubble strewn with clothes, furniture and pot plants.
From Barron's ● Jun. 15, 2026
It showed dead cattle strewn around McClain’s Texas lot.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026
He only remembers fragments now: the explosion, heat, gas cylinders strewn across the kitchen and his desperate search from room to room, calling his wife's name: "Sarla, Sarla."
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2026
More pressed flowers were strewn across the desk.
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
The Hercules aircraft went down shortly after departure from Puerto Leguizamo, near the southern border with Ecuador, strewing burning wreckage on the jungle floor.
From Barron's ● Mar. 23, 2026
The storm brought fierce winds and drove surging seawater miles inland, strewing the area with fallen trees, power lines and debris.
From Reuters ● Aug. 31, 2023
Climbing over fallen redwoods strewing the road after one of the toughest storms in March, I realized that my climate grief presents as numbness, disgust, fury and despair.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2023
For those who adhere to the Catholic faith, the strewing about of the eucharist was nearly as sacrilegious as the burglary of its receptacle, a diocese spokeswoman said.
From New York Times ● Jun. 1, 2022
In the infinitesimal glow of the stars, the trees and flowers were strewing their cool odors.
From "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath
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.
