Skip to content
Vinony

splay

verb

  1. to cause to spread outward
  2. to make oblique : bevel
  3. to extend apart or outward especially in an awkward manner
  4. to slope, slant
L27965 on Wikidata ↗

adjective

  1. turned outward
  2. awkward, ungainly
L27966 on Wikidata ↗

noun

  1. an oblique angle or bevel given to the sides of an opening in a wall so that the opening is wider on one side of the wall than on the other
  2. spread, expansion
L328288 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /spleɪ/

adj

Etymology: PIE word *dwís The verb is derived from Middle English splaien, splayen (“to display; to spread out, unfurl (a flag, etc.); (cooking) to cut open (a fish) lengthwise and lay it open; (figurative) to appear; to spread”), an aphetic form of Middle English displaien, displayen (“to display”): see display. The adjective and adverb are derived from the verb, or from splayfoot (noun) or splayfooted (adjective). The noun is derived from the verb.

  1. Oblique, slanted.
  2. Turned outward; spread out.

    “to sit splay-legged”

  3. Crooked, distorted, out of place.

    “splay shoulders”

    “In the German mind, as in the German language, there does seem to be something splay, something blunt-edged, unhandy, and infelicitous,—some want of quick, fine, sure perception, which tends to balance the great superiority of the Germans in knowledge, and in the disposition to deal impartially with knowledge.”

adv

Etymology: PIE word *dwís The verb is derived from Middle English splaien, splayen (“to display; to spread out, unfurl (a flag, etc.); (cooking) to cut open (a fish) lengthwise and lay it open; (figurative) to appear; to spread”), an aphetic form of Middle English displaien, displayen (“to display”): see display. The adjective and adverb are derived from the verb, or from splayfoot (noun) or splayfooted (adjective). The noun is derived from the verb.

  1. In an oblique or slanted manner; obliquely, slantedly.
  2. Of walking, etc.: with the feet turned outwards; in a splayfooted manner.

noun

Etymology: PIE word *dwís The verb is derived from Middle English splaien, splayen (“to display; to spread out, unfurl (a flag, etc.); (cooking) to cut open (a fish) lengthwise and lay it open; (figurative) to appear; to spread”), an aphetic form of Middle English displaien, displayen (“to display”): see display. The adjective and adverb are derived from the verb, or from splayfoot (noun) or splayfooted (adjective). The noun is derived from the verb.

  1. An outward spread of an object such as a bowl or cup.
  2. A bevel, slant, or slope, especially of the frame or jamb of a door or window, by which an opening is made larger at one face of the wall than at the other, or larger at each of the faces than it is between them.

    “The daylight was so lowered by the impervious roof of cloud overhead that it scarcely reached further into Lord Mountclere's entrance-hall than to the splays of the windows, even but an hour or two after midday; […]”

  3. The amount of such a bevel, slant, or slope.
  4. A widening of a minor road where it forms a junction with a major road to ensure that the view of traffic on the major road by drivers on the minor road is not obstructed.

    “visibility splay”

  5. The view to the left or right which a driver on a minor road has of traffic on the major road; also, a plan showing this.

verb

Etymology: From Middle English splaien, splayen, a variant of spaien, spayen (“to remove the ovaries of (a female animal), spay; to stab or kill (an animal)”): see spay.

  1. Synonym of spay (“to destroy or remove the ovaries and/or uterus (of a female animal) to prevent pregnancy”).

    “Sovves alſo are ſplaied as vvell as camels, but tvvo daies before, they be kept from meat; then hang they them by the forelegs for to make inciſion into their matrice [womb], and to take forth their ſtones: and by this means they vvill ſooner grovv to be fat.”

    “Eſc[alus]. Hovv vvould you liue Pompey? by being a bavvd? […] the Lavv vvould not allovv it Pompey; nor it ſhall not be allovved in Vienna. / Clo[wne, i.e., Pompey Bum, a pimp]. Do's your VVorſhip meane to geld and ſplay all the youth of the City?”