dispread

English

Etymology

From dis- +‎ spread.

Verb

dispread (third-person singular simple present dispreads, present participle dispreading, simple past and past participle dispreaded)

1. (archaic, rare) To spread out, to extend.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     In widest Ocean she her throne does reare, / That ouer all the earth it may be seene; / As morning Sunne her beames dispredden cleare [...].

   • 1817 December, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt of Islam. […]”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 269:

     her dark hair was dispread,
     Like the pine’s locks upon the lingering blast;
     Over mine eyes its shadowy strings it spread
     Fitfully, and the hills and streams fled fast,
     As o’er their glimmering forms the steed’s broad shadow past; […]

   • 1859, George Meredith, chapter 13, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC:

     The lamp which ultimately was sure to be lifted up to illumine the acts of this secretive race began slowly to dispread its rays …

Derived terms

• dispreader