different between sprawl vs sprawly

English

Etymology

From Middle English spraulen, from Old English spreawlian, ultimately through a Proto-Germanic form cognate with *spreutan? (“to sprout”) from Proto-Indo-European *sper- (“to strew”). Compare North Frisian spraweli.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /sp???l/

Rhymes: -??l

• (US) IPA^(key): /sp??l/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /sp??l/

Verb

sprawl (third-person singular simple present sprawls, present participle sprawling, simple past and past participle sprawled)

1. To sit with the limbs spread out.
2. To spread out in a disorderly fashion; to straggle.

Translations

Noun

sprawl (countable and uncountable, plural sprawls)

1. An ungainly sprawling posture.
2. A straggling, haphazard growth, especially of housing on the edge of a city.

Translations

Derived terms

• urban sprawl

See also

• Los Angelization

References

• “sprawl”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, ?ISBN

English

Etymology

sprawl +? -y

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /?sp???.li/

Adjective

sprawly (comparative sprawlier, superlative sprawliest)

1. (colloquial) sprawling.