SPREAD Copy link • SPREAD 1. v. Transitively, tendere: contendere (to spread out): distendere (to stretch apart or asunder): extendere (to stretch out, extend): pandere: dispandere (to open, spread out): explicare (to unfold). To spread nets, plagas tendere (Cic., Off., 3, 17, 68); retia tendere (for an animal, alicui; also figuratively). To spread the sails, vela dare ventis; vela tendere or pandere (poetical). Intransitively, diffundi (of trees and their branches): luxuriari (to grow luxuriantly; of plants). To spread far, late diffundi (of branches); vastis or patulis diffundi ramis (of trees); manare, serpere (of a calamity, a rumor; the latter also with the notion of gradual, unobserved progress); increbrescere, invalescere (as customs, etc.); diffundi, evagari (of diseases): luxury spreads, luxus excrescit or pullulare coepit: to spread further, longius serpere atque progredi (of an evil): to spread further every day, serpere manareque in dies latius: a rumor spreads through the whole town, rumor tota urbe manat or discurrit: the doctrine of Pythagoras spread far and wide, doctrina Pythagoras longe lateque fluebat. 2. s. By circumlocution with the verb.