| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| sprawl |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  sprôl |
| VERB: | Inflected forms: sprawled, sprawl·ing, sprawls
| | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To sit or lie with the body and limbs spread out awkwardly. 2. To spread out in a straggling or disordered fashion: untidy tenements sprawling toward the river. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | To cause to spread out in a straggling or disordered fashion. | | NOUN: | 1. A sprawling position or posture. 2. Haphazard growth or extension outward, especially that resulting from real estate development on the outskirts of a city: urban sprawl. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English sprawlen, from Old English spr awlian, to writhe. See sper- in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | sprawl er —NOUN
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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