spread around

spread around

1. To distribute some substance evenly over the surface of something or some area. In this usage, a noun or pronoun is used between "spread" and "all over." Try to spread the icing around as evenly as you can with a spatula. We'll have to use rakes to spread the manure around the whole field.
2. To move across and cover some area; to be distributed or dispersed around (some place). The investigators began spreading around the site of the accident to determine what had happened. The infectious disease spread around the globe faster than anyone had predicted.
3. Of information, to disseminate around (some area or place). News of the CEO's affair spread around the office in a matter of hours. There are rumors spreading around that the government is on the brink of collapse.
4. To disseminate information around (some area or place). In this usage, a noun or pronoun is used between "spread" and "around." She's been spreading gossip around to discredit her rival. Horse-mounted messengers were sent to spread the king's announcement around the region.
See also: around, spread
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

spread someone or something around

to distribute people or things over an area. Spread the good singers around so they can help the others in the choir. Liz spread around the seeds so they would dry.
See also: around, spread

spread something around

to distribute news or gossip. Please don't spread this around, but Don ran away from home! Don't spread around that story!
See also: around, spread
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • back into
  • back into (someone or something)
  • angle
  • angling
  • replenish
  • replenish (someone or something) with (something)
  • replenish with
  • orient
  • orient to
  • orient to (something)
References in classic literature
I know not you men: this gloom and consolation is often spread around me.
Thus Spake Zarathustra
The sounds quickly spread around them in every direction.
Last of The Mohicans
In the lion-hearted King, the brilliant, but useless character, of a knight of romance, was in a great measure realized and revived; and the personal glory which he acquired by his own deeds of arms, was far more dear to his excited imagination, than that which a course of policy and wisdom would have spread around his government.
Ivanhoe
And so soon as he had cut off the members with flint and cast them from the land into the surging sea, they were swept away over the main a long time: and a white foam spread around them from the immortal flesh, and in it there grew a maiden.
Collection Of Hesiod Homer and Homerica
Large folds of cloth were next drawn out of the vehicle, and after being spread around the whole, were pegged to the earth in such a manner as to form a tolerably capacious and an exceedingly convenient tent.
The Prairie
We went on by a pretty little orchard, where the cherries were nestling among the green leaves and the shadows of the apple-trees were sporting on the grass, to the house itself--a cottage, quite a rustic cottage of doll's rooms; but such a lovely place, so tranquil and so beautiful, with such a rich and smiling country spread around it; with water sparkling away into the distance, here all overhung with summer-growth, there turning a humming mill; at its nearest point glancing through a meadow by the cheerful town, where cricket-players were assembling in bright groups and a flag was flying from a white tent that rippled in the sweet west wind.
Bleak House
She heard no sound, she felt no people moving save in the tumultuous and glowing city, from which she was separated only by an arm of the Seine, and whence her name reached her, mingled with cries of "Death!" The rest of Paris was spread around her in great blocks of shadows.
Notre Dame de Paris
The team also found that in women whose cancers had spread around the body, the cells contained higher amounts of Keratin-80.
Study identifies 'switch' that aids spread of breast cancer around body
FOR the last three centuries, development and modern practices from the developed countries have spread around the globe.
Rationality in politics
ISLAMABAD -- According to an alarming research, 'bad' cholesterol helps cancer spread around the body.
Bad cholesterol helps cancer spread: Study
Lava has spread around 387,500sq ft surrounding the most active fissure, though the rate of movement is slow.
Scores flee as lava destroys homes; WORLD BULLETINS
Safar Mubarak al-Shafi, director of the department, pointed out that the department has formed a number of teams spread around the country's beaches to clean them, as such efforts go on around the clock during the holidays.
MME teams clean beaches, remove waste
The deal also requrires transporting of Darayya's residents to temporary residential centers for local refugees that are widely spread around areas in Damascus and its outskirts, added Obaid.
Syrian opposition, regime reach deal on Rif Damascus
The EndoPredict test can more accurately predict whether a woman's cancer will spread around the body than the standard test used on the NHS.
New test could help women battle breast cancer
A PUPIL stepped in front of a train and died after news of a liaison with a female student spread around school, an inquest heard.
Train death of schoolboy, 14 after 'liaison'