Now dial. and U.S. [Of obscure origin: cf. SPRANTLE v.]
1. intr. Of persons or animals: To struggle; to spread out the limbs, to sprawl.
14[?]. Sir Beues (MS. O), 3878. Good game had Sabere to sene, How they lay spranglynge on the grene.
1566. J. Partridge, Plasidas (Roxb.), 105. There he layde his sprangling corps, almost deuoyde of breath.
1825. Jamieson, Suppl., To Sprangle, to struggle; including the idea of making a spring to get away; Roxb[urghshire].
2. To straggle; to spread out in branches or ramifications.
1881. Oxfordsh. Gloss. (E.D.S.), 98. A lot o’ gret spranggelin’ cabbage.
1882. Cornh. Mag., May, 580. Over its fence sprangles a squash-vine in ungainly joy.
1896. N. York Wkly. Witness, 18 Nov., 3/3. The Mississippi sprangles as it nears the Gulf, as the great volume of water empties through three outlets.
