spread

{{Roman}}I.{{/Roman}}

noun

1 increase in amount or number of sth

ADJECTIVE

▪ good, great, wide

▪ rapid

▪ gradual, slow

▪ geographical, global

▪

The current survey will have a wider geographical spread.

VERB + SPREAD

▪ encourage, promote

▪

Such unhygienic conditions encourage the spread of disease.

▪ halt, prevent, stem, stop, tackle

▪ combat, contain, control, curb, limit, reduce, slow (esp. AmE)

PREPOSITION

▪ spread of

▪

the spread of fire

2 newspaper, magazine, etc.

ADJECTIVE

▪ centre/center

▪

A photograph of the star adorned the centre/center spread.

▪ double, double-page (esp. BrE), two-page

▪ five-page, 20-page, etc.

▪ full-page

▪ fashion, photo

PHRASES

▪ be featured in a spread, feature in a spread

▪

She is featured in spreads in Vogue.

▪

Her work featured in a two-page spread in ‘New Woman’ magazine.

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verb

1 open sth so that you can see all of it

ADVERB

▪ carefully

▪ out

▪

We spread the rug out on the floor.

PREPOSITION

▪ across, on, over

PHRASES

▪ spread sth open

▪

He had a newspaper spread open on his knee.

▪ spread your arms, legs, etc. out wide, spread your arms, legs, etc. wide

▪

a bird with its wings spread wide

2 reach more people/wider area

ADVERB

▪ fast, like wildfire, quickly, rapidly, soon

▪

The news spread like wildfire.

▪ gradually, slowly

▪ easily

▪

The disease spreads easily.

▪ widely

▪

Allow plenty of space for this plant as its roots spread widely.

▪ far and wide

▪

His fame had spread far and wide.

▪ outwards/outward

PREPOSITION

▪ (all) across, among, around, beyond, by, from, into, (all) over, through, throughout, to

▪

The effects of this policy spread far beyond children now at school.

▪

The disease can be spread by contact.

▪

The fire rapidly spread to adjoining buildings.

PHRASES

▪ be thinly spread

▪

Expertise in this field is very thinly spread across the country.

▪ spread yourself too thin

▪

With four markets to manage, there's a danger that's she's spreading herself too thin.

3 cover a surface with a soft substance

ADVERB

▪ thickly

▪ lightly, thinly

▪ evenly

▪

Don't make the paste too thick, or it will not spread evenly.

PREPOSITION

▪ on

▪

He spread marmalade on the toast.

▪ with

▪

Spread each slice generously with butter.

4 divide/share sth

ADVERB

▪ equally, evenly, uniformly

▪ unevenly

VERB + SPREAD

▪ try to

PREPOSITION

▪ among, between

▪

We tried to spread the workload evenly between the departments.

▪ over

▪

The course takes forty hours, spread over twenty weeks.

Spread is used with these nouns as the subject: ↑awareness, ↑blaze, ↑blood, ↑blush, ↑butter, ↑cancer, ↑crack, ↑discontent, ↑disease, ↑effect, ↑epidemic, ↑fame, ↑fire, ↑flame, ↑flush, ↑infection, ↑mosquito, ↑news, ↑panic, ↑plague, ↑rash, ↑religion, ↑revolt, ↑revolution, ↑ripple, ↑rumour, ↑sensation, ↑silence, ↑smile, ↑stain, ↑story, ↑strike, ↑violence, ↑virus, ↑war, ↑warmth, ↑weed, ↑word

Spread is used with these nouns as the object: ↑ash, ↑bread, ↑butter, ↑chocolate, ↑cost, ↑democracy, ↑disease, ↑faith, ↑fertilizer, ↑finger, ↑frosting, ↑germ, ↑gospel, ↑gossip, ↑hand, ↑HIV, ↑honey, ↑icing, ↑ideology, ↑infection, ↑influence, ↑investment, ↑jam, ↑jelly, ↑joy, ↑knowledge, ↑leg, ↑load, ↑manure, ↑margarine, ↑message, ↑misinformation, ↑mixture, ↑mustard, ↑myth, ↑net, ↑news, ↑palm, ↑panic, ↑plague, ↑poison, ↑pollen, ↑propaganda, ↑religion, ↑repayment, ↑risk, ↑rumour, ↑seed, ↑story, ↑teaching, ↑terror, ↑toast, ↑virus, ↑wealth, ↑wing, ↑word, ↑workload, ↑wreckage