sprawled; sprawling; sprawls
1
: to lie or sit with arms and legs spread out
2
: to spread or develop irregularly or without restraint
bushes sprawling along the road
sprawling suburbs
a sprawling narrative
3
a
: to creep or clamber awkwardly
b
archaic
: to lie thrashing or tossing about
: to cause to spread out carelessly or awkwardly
sprawled out her books on the table
1
: an irregularly spread or scattered group or mass
2
3
: the act, posture, or condition of sprawling
Examples of sprawl in a Sentence
Verb
The kids sprawled on the floor to watch TV.
She tripped and went sprawling into the table.
The city sprawls along the coastline.
The bushes were sprawling along the road.
Recent Examples on the Web
Mara Reinstein, The Hollywood Reporter, 18 Nov. 2024
The Royal Poinciana Plaza has 180,000 square feet of luxury retail space, sprawling gardens and two courtyards and is home to emerging brands, heritage houses and dining.
—Lisa Lockwood, WWD, 18 Nov. 2024
Iain Martin, Forbes, 30 Oct. 2024
Kelleher comes to revive you with refreshing juice, an amazing patchwork quilt, a veritable sprawl of gorgeous color.
—Kanya Kanchana, Longreads, 15 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for sprawl 
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Verb
With its ’70s-era production details and sprawling age-spanning ensemble, Saturday Night has high hopes for the Oscars this year.
—Mara Reinstein, The Hollywood Reporter, 18 Nov. 2024
The Royal Poinciana Plaza has 180,000 square feet of luxury retail space, sprawling gardens and two courtyards and is home to emerging brands, heritage houses and dining.
—Lisa Lockwood, WWD, 18 Nov. 2024
Noun
Now his pitch is to plug that technology into internal databases and a sprawl of business apps and software tools to help streamline repetitive tasks for office workers like updating Salesforce notes.
—Iain Martin, Forbes, 30 Oct. 2024
Kelleher comes to revive you with refreshing juice, an amazing patchwork quilt, a veritable sprawl of gorgeous color.
—Kanya Kanchana, Longreads, 15 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for sprawl
Dictionary Entries Near sprawl
Cite this Entry
“Sprawl.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sprawl. Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.
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