[f. SPREAD v.]
1. Extending or growing outwards; increasing in size or area.
a. 1593. Marlowe, trans. 1st Bk. Lucan, 530. Fiery meteors,… Now spearlike, long; now like a spreading torch.
1651. Davenant, Gondibert, I. i. 52. Her spreading stature talness was, not length.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xxiv. ¶ 19. While he is taking the Sheet off the Tympan, he gives a quick spreading glance upon it.
1725. Pope, Odyss., II. 404. Me from our coast shall spreading sails convey.
1746. Hervey, Medit. (1818), 127. Soon arises the anemone, encircled at the bottom with a spreading robe.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxxvi. To see the dipping cars imprint the water, and to watch the spreading circles they left.
1827. Keble, Chr. Y., Ordin., Through the hallow’d air The spreading cloud of incense soar’d.
1851. Ruskin, Stones Ven. (1874), I. ix. 111. The eye always requires, on a slender shaft, a more spreading capital than it does on a massy one.
1897. W. Anderson, Surg. Treat. Lupus, 15. In large areas of lupus … the spreading edge may be excised.
fig. a. 1647. Habington, Surv. Worcs. (Worcs. Hist. Soc.), III. 424. The worthy and large spreadinge family of the Throckmortons.
b. Of trees or plants.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., V. ii. 14. Whose top-branch ouerpeer’d Ioves spreading Tree.
1611. Bible, Wisd., xvii. 18. A melodious noise of birdes among the spreading branches.
1634. Milton, Comus, 184. Here to lodge Under the spreading favour of these Pines.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 216. With spreading Planes he made a cool Retreat.
1720. Prior, Truth & Falsehood, 11. Under a spreading beach They sat.
1743. Francis, trans. Horace, Odes, III. i. 14. Others … joy to plant the spreading grove.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxxii. Beneath the dark and spreading branches.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 531. A good bearer, a spreading tree.
1869. Tozer, Highl. Turkey, I. 292. [We] lay down to rest under a spreading ash-tree.
c. Bot. Having a gradual outward tendency or direction.
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), II. 166. Calyx 5-flowered: panicle spreading.
1841. Penny Cycl., XXI. 182/2. Five petals, which are usually spreading.
1858. A. Irvine, Adv. Handbk. Brit. Pl., 753. Teeth with spreading or spreading-erect cartilaginous points.
1890. Science-Gossip, XXVI. 275. Leaflets ovate, with long spreading hairs near the underside of the mid-rib.
Comb. 1840. Penny Cycl., XVIII. 171/2. The spreading-leaved Pine…. A lofty tree, with leaves eight or nine inches long.
1846–50. A. Wood, Class-bk. Bot., 194. Talinum patens, Spreading-flowered Talinum.
2. a. In specific names of plants.
1548. Turner, Names Herbes, 45. Lactuca sessilis, in englishe spredynge Lettis.
1823. Crabb, Technol. Dict., II. Scorzonera residifolia,… Spreading Viper’s-Grass.
1836. Penny Cycl., VI. 432/1. Cerasus prostrata, the spreading cherry.
1859. Miss Pratt, Brit. Grasses, 65. Spreading Millet-grass. Ibid., 71. Spreading Silky Bent.
b. Spreading adder, the blowing adder. U.S.
1891. in Cent. Dict.
3. Tending to become (more) widely diffused or prevalent.
1560. Bible, Lev. xiii. 57. If it appeare stil in the garment,… it is a spreading leprie.
1647. Power of Keys, v. 119. By the spreading, leprous quality of their example.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 182. Spreading Succ’ry choaks the rising Field.
1746. Francis, trans. Horace, Sat., II. viii. 98. From bed to bed the spreading whisper flies.
1843. R. J. Graves, Syst. Clin. Med., xxv. 319. The disposition to fresh ulceration of a spreading and intractable character.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 712. ‘Spreading gangrene’ … and pyæmia are natural consequences.
