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Spraddle

//ˈspɹædl̩// noun, verb

Definitions

Noun

1
A manner of walking with the legs spread out.

Verb

1
To spread apart (the legs). transitive
"[T]hey [scorpions] rely on pressure-sensing organs near the ends of each of their eight walking legs to detect subtle shock waves that propagate outwards, even through sand, when another creature passes by on the desert floor. According to [Philip H.] Brownell, the scorpion orients itself toward the focus of any such disturbance by gauging the minuscule differences in the times at which the shock wave reaches each of its eight spraddled legs."
2
To spread apart the legs of (someone or something). transitive
"She brought the quail back, and while it was still alive, she split it from breastbone to tail, and spraddled it, kicking, over Granpa's snake bite. She held the kicking quail on Granpa's hand for a long time, and when she took it off, the quail had turned green all over its inside."
3
To lie, move, or stand with legs spread. intransitive
"Horace slunk into the kitchen. The stove, spraddling out on its four iron legs, was gently humming. Aunt Martha had evidently just lighted the lamp, for she went to it and began to twist the wick experimentally."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Uncertain; possibly from sprad, an obsolete dialectal past participle of spread; or a blend of sprawl + straddle or spread + straddle, or perhaps from Middle English *spraddelen; a frequentative form of Middle English spradden, spraden, sprēden (“to lay flat, spread; to distribute, scatter, sow”), from Old English sprǣdan (“to expand, spread; to outspread, stretch forth”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)per- (“to sow, sprinkle, strew”), equivalent to spread + -le. Compare also dialectal Norwegian spradla (“to flail, squirm, thrash about”).

Etymology 2

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