- spread
- spread vb Spread, circulate, disseminate, diffuse, propagate, radiate can all mean to extend or cause to extend over an area or space.Spread basically implies a drawing or stretching out to the limit{
spread a net
}{spread a cloth on the ground
}{the bird spreads its wings
}{spread a sail
}and in the sense here considered emphasizes distribution or dispersion (as by strewing or scattering or being strewed or scattered) over an extent of space that may be large or small or incalculable or calculable{spread fertilizer over a field
}{this troublesome weed has spread over a large section of the country
}Often it suggests an applying in or a taking the form of a thin layer{spread butter on bread
}{the paint spreads thinly and evenly
}{the clouds shifted, spread against the sky . . . and enveloped everything below— Styron
}or a making or becoming more prevalent or more widely known or felt{don't go on spreading that nonsense— Rose Macaulay
}{the heretic should be crushed before his heresy can spread— Fitzroy Maclean
}{news of us might spread far beyond that town— Ship'ton
}Circulate may imply in its primary and largely technical use a continuous or repeated movement over the same course from starting point to starting point{the blood circulates from the heart through the arteries and veins back to the heart again
}{steam circulating through a heating system
}In its more general applications the term tends to stress a moving about or a causing to move about freely and continuously, often to the more or less complete loss of the notion of going over the same course again and again{the seats were being filled up rapidly and a pleasant noise circulated in the auditorium— Joyce
}{the satire, circulating in manuscript copies, had a great local vogue— Lucas
}{all of us circulating ominously, and incognito, throughout the city, sizing up elevator operators— Salinger
}Disseminate implies much the same as spread when that word suggests distribution here and there{disseminate information
}{the London ladies were indignant, and naturally they started disseminating a vast amount of fruity gossip about the new Lady Turton— Dahl
}{in those days the Boy Scout movement was already in existence, but it had still to disseminate sound views about knot-tying among the rising generation— H. G. Wells
}Diffuse suggests a spreading throughout a space; it is applied primarily to things (as sound, light, odor, or vapor) that in moving permeate the medium through which they move and in its extended sense to things (as education, knowledge, fame, and spirit) that have or are felt to have a similar pervasive quality in their dissemination{the colors of the sky are due to minute particles diffused through the atmosphere— Tyndall
}{it would surely be hard to find any country . . . where instruction is more widely diffused— Ellis
}{a State in which power is concentrated will ... be more bellicose than one in which power is diffused— Russell
}{the so-called "correct speech" is being diffused to the mass of the populace through migration, mass education, and . . . communication media— Amer. Sociological Review
}Propagate (see also GENERATE; compare propaganda under PUBLICITY) implies extension for the sake of increase (as of believers or members or of activity or operation){propagate the faith
}{propagate a false rumor
}{I am bound by my own definition of criticism: a disinterested endeavor to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in the world— Arnold
}{Extraordinary plebeians who rise sharply . . . and so propagate the delusion that all other plebeians would do the same thing if they had the chance— Mencken
}Radiate implies a spreading from a center outward in or as if in rays; in general use it is often applied to the spreading of something material or immaterial from a fixed center{soul- searching Freedom! here assume thy stand, and radiate hence to every distant land— Barlow
}{her face . . . was still pretty, even with the web of little wrinkles that radiated from the corners of her eyes— Basso
}{a superb self- confidence radiated from him, as it does from any healthy animal— Gibbons
}but in its common technical use the term is largely restricted in reference to diffusion in the form of rays (as of heat or light){the sun radiates both light and heat
}Analogous words: *distribute, dispense, deal: *scatter, dissipatespread n *expanse, amplitude, stretch
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
