splay Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an outward bevel around a door or window that makes it seem larger
  2. verb spread open or apart
    • He splayed his huge hands over the table
  3. verb turn outward
    rotate; turn out; spread out.
    • These birds can splay out their toes
    • ballet dancers can rotate their legs out by 90 degrees
  4. verb move out of position
    dislocate; slip; luxate.
    • dislocate joints
    • the artificial hip joint luxated and had to be put back surgically
  5. adjective satellite turned outward in an ungainly manner
    • splay knees

WordNet


Splay transitive verb
Etymology
Abbrev. of display.
Definitions
  1. To display; to spread. Obs. "Our ensigns splayed." Gascoigne.
  2. To dislocate, as a shoulder bone.
  3. To spay; to castrate. Obs. or Prov. Eng.
  4. To turn on one side; to render oblique; to slope or slant, as the side of a door, window, etc. Oxf. Gloss.
Splay adjective
Definitions
  1. Displayed; spread out; turned outward; hence, flat; ungainly; as, splay shoulders.
    Sonwthing splay, something blunt-edged, unhandy, and infelicitous. M. Arnold.
Splay adjective
Definitions
  1. (Arch.) A slope or bevel, especially of the sides of a door or window, by which the opening is made larged at one face of the wall than at the other, or larger at each of the faces than it is between them.

Webster 1913