spreading

«spreading» in Mova's school dictionary: Covering a surface with a thin layer of something soft… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (spread, spreads, spread, spreading — "spreading" is the -ing form)

meaning for a pupil

1) Covering a surface with a thin layer of something soft, like spreading butter on toast. tree →

2) Opening something out to its full size: spreading out a map, a bird spreading its wings. tree →

3) Getting bigger or reaching more places or people: a fire spreading, germs spreading, news spreading. tree →

4) Sharing out over time or among people: spreading the work. tree →

sense in the lessons

In health, germs spread from person to person through coughs, sneezes and dirty hands; washing hands and covering your mouth stop them spreading. A rash or redness that is spreading from a cut can mean an infection — tell an adult. In safety, fires can spread very fast, so get out and stay out. In everyday life, rumours spreading can hurt people, so do not pass them on. In science, seeds are spread by wind, water and animals. Phrases: "spreading butter", "spreading germs", "spreading out", "spreading rumours", "spreading the word".

examples

• She is spreading jam on her toast. tree →
• Cover your sneeze to stop germs spreading. tree →
• The fire was spreading quickly through the dry grass. tree →
• The eagle is spreading its huge wings. tree →
• Please stop spreading rumours about Tom. tree →
• We are spreading the map out on the table. tree →
• The redness around the cut is spreading, so we'll see the doctor. tree →
• The good news is spreading around the school. tree →
• It had a tall trunk with a wide-spreading top, and was very old. tree →

note

Irregular: spread, spread, spread (past is the same, not "spreaded"). Pronounced "spred". Noun: a spread (something to put on bread, or a big meal). In maths, "spreading 12 sweets evenly between 3 plates" means divide: 12 ÷ 3 = 4 each.

In the corpora

• "I'm just saying what I heard" and "I only told one person" are still spreading a rumour.
• Separating facts, reports and guesses keeps you from spreading rumours as facts.
• Raccoons were brought to Europe and some escaped; now they live wild in Germany and are spreading to nearby countries.
• Spreading your feet and bending your knees makes that area wider and your centre lower, so you are much harder to knock over.
• Spreading rumours and sending mean messages online are forms of bullying.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «spreading» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.