spread out

phrasal verb

spread out; spreading out; spreads out

1

: to open, arrange, or place (something) over a large area

He spread out the map on the table.

He spread the cards out on the table.

The cards were spread out across the table.

2

: to be open, arranged, or extended over a large area

The city is spread out over a wide area.

3

: to move (parts of the body) outward or away from each other

Spread your arms out.

There's no room on the couch to spread yourself out.

4

: to divide up (something) over a period of time or among members of a group

They spread the work out among the committee members.

The course is spread out over two semesters.

5

: to move apart from the other members of a group especially to search an area

The police spread out to search the area faster.

Examples of spread out in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Around 40,000 passengers ride the two-and-a-half-mile-long cable car line daily, spreading out across 154 cabins with room for ten passengers each. —Shoshi Parks, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 Jan. 2025

However, the two first responders ended up rescuing both of them from the water, and could be seen in a video expertly sliding across the ice on their stomachs, to spread out their surface area and reduce the pressure on the ice. —Michael Gfoeller and David H. Rundell, Newsweek, 15 Jan. 2025

This year marks the festival’s 23rd edition spread out across boroughs including Shoreditch Design Triangle, The Dalston to Stokey Design District in Hackney, Battersea Design District and more. —Kissa Castaneda, Forbes, 12 Jan. 2025

The struggle to hire workers as the economy reopened in late 2020 and early 2021 led several retailers to start spreading out their hiring throughout the year, relying less on bringing on help rapidly in the weeks immediately before the holiday shopping season. —Jordyn Holman, New York Times, 10 Jan. 2025