different between spread vs diffused

English

Etymology

From Middle English spreden, from Old English spr?dan (“to spread, expand”), from Proto-Germanic *spraidijan? (“to spread”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)per- (“to strew, sow, sprinkle”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian spreede (“to spread”), West Frisian spriede (“to spread”), North Frisian spriedjen (“to spread”), Dutch spreiden (“to spread”), Low German spreden (“to spread”), German spreiten (“to spread, spread out”), Norwegian spre, spreie (“to spread, disseminate”), Swedish sprida (“to spread”), Latin spern?, sparg?, Ancient Greek ?????? (speír?), Persian ?????? (sepordan, “to deposit”), English spurn.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sp??d/
• Rhymes: -?d

Verb

spread (third-person singular simple present spreads, present participle spreading, simple past and past participle spread)

1. (transitive) To stretch out, open out (a material etc.) so that it more fully covers a given area of space. [from 13th c.]

2. (transitive) To extend (individual rays, limbs etc.); to stretch out in varying or opposing directions. [from 13th c.]

3. (transitive) To disperse, to scatter or distribute over a given area. [from 13th c.]

4. (intransitive) To proliferate; to become more widely present, to be disseminated. [from 13th c.]
5. (transitive) To disseminate; to cause to proliferate, to make (something) widely known or present. [from 14th c.]

6. (intransitive) To take up a larger area or space; to expand, be extended. [from 14th c.]

7. (transitive) To smear, to distribute in a thin layer. [from 16th c.]

8. (transitive) To cover (something) with a thin layer of some substance, as of butter. [from 16th c.]

9. To prepare; to set and furnish with provisions.

   to spread a table

   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, The Marriage of Geraint

     Boiled the flesh, and spread the board.

10. (intransitive, slang) To open one’s legs, especially for sexual favours. [from 20th c.]
    • 1984, Martin Amis, Money:

      This often sounds like the rap of a demented DJ: the way she moves has got to be good news, can't get loose till I feel the juice— suck and spread, bitch, yeah bounce for me baby.

    • 1991, Tori Amos, Me and a Gun:

      Yes I wore a slinky red thing. Does that mean I should spread for you, your friends, your father, Mr Ed?

    • 2003, Outkast, "Spread" (from the album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below):

      I don't want to move too fast, but / Can't resist your sexy ass / Just spread, spread for me; / (I can't, I can't wait to get you home)

Synonyms

• disseminate
• circulate
• propagate
• diffuse
• put about

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

spread (countable and uncountable, plural spreads)

1. The act of spreading.
2. Something that has been spread.
3. (cartomancy) A layout, pattern or design of cards arranged for a reading.
4. An expanse of land.
   • November 29, 1712, Andrew Freeport, a letter to The Spectator

     I have got a fine spread of improvable lands.

5. A large tract of land used to raise livestock; a cattle ranch.
   • 2005, Brokeback Mountain (film), 00:11:50:

     - Can’t wait till I get my own spread and won’t have to put up with Joe Aguirre’s crap no more.
     - I’m savin’ for a place myself.

6. A piece of material used as a cover (such as a bedspread).
   • 1975, Douglas Matthews, ?Suzanne Wymelenberg, ?Susan Cheever Cowley, Secondhand is Better (page 166)

     Linen shawls and spreads show up in secondhand clothing stores like those in the row on St. Marks Place in New York City.

7. A large meal, especially one laid out on a table.
8. (bread, etc.) Any form of food designed to be spread, such as butters or jams.
9. (prison slang, uncountable) Food improvised by inmates from various ingredients to relieve the tedium of prison food.

   Synonym: swole

10. An item in a newspaper or magazine that occupies more than one column or page.
11. Two facing pages in a book, newspaper etc.
12. A numerical difference.
13. (business, economics) The difference between the wholesale and retail prices.
14. (trading, economics, finance) The difference between the price of a futures month and the price of another month of the same commodity.
15. (trading, finance) The purchase of a futures contract of one delivery month against the sale of another futures delivery month of the same commodity.
16. (trading, finance) The purchase of one delivery month of one commodity against the sale of that same delivery month of a different commodity.
17. (trading) An arbitrage transaction of the same commodity in two markets, executed to take advantage of a profit from price discrepancies.
18. (trading) The difference between bidding and asking price.
19. (finance) The difference between the prices of two similar items.
20. (geometry) An unlimited expanse of discontinuous points.
21. The surface in proportion to the depth of a cut gemstone.

Synonyms

• straddle

Translations

Further reading

• spread in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• spread in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Padres, Persad, drapes, dreaps, padres, parsed, rasped, repads, spader, spared

Italian

Etymology

English spread

Noun

spread m (invariable)

1. (trading, finance) The difference between returns or between quotations of multiple securities or of the same security over the course of a day.
2. A contract awarding which offers the buyer the widest range of bargaining possibilities.

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from English spread.

Noun

spread m (plural spreads)

1. (business, economics) spread (the difference between the wholesale and retail prices)
2. (finance, economics) difference between the interest rate a bank charges to a client and the interest rate it pays

English

Pronunciation

Verb

diffused

1. simple past tense and past participle of diffuse