Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) the dormitory suburbs of a big city.

1946		Age (Melbourne) 15 June 8/4: It is believed by exprts that Melbourne should be developed as a ‘spread city’.
1961		Bernardsville News (NJ) 14 Dec. 9/2: ‘We are building a new kind of urban world [...] a ‘spread city’ that is not a satellite of the Region’s central city’.
1969		New Yorker 22 Feb. 30: ‘Spread city’ is an amorphous development pattern, neither urban nor suburban nor rural.
1978		Record (Jackensack, NJ) 2 Feb. 51/2: Residents of the ‘spread city’ scattered outisde old cities and suburbs.
1990		Guardian 21 July 21/1: Rasmussen’s admiration for the spread city arose from his [...] belief that for families there is not better place than a house [...] with a garden.
1999		‘Economic Geography Gloss.’ at http://faculty.washington.edu 🌐 Spread city A term used eg by the New York Regional Plan Association, defining it (negatively) as ‘It is not a true city because it lacks centers, nor a suburb’.

see separate entries.

(N.Z. prison) to infoorm, to pass information, rumoours.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 175/1: spread comes v. to spread information, to inform upon, to nark.

1. to have sexual intercourse.

c.1770		Joaks upon Joaks 19: Quoth the King, So Nell [Gwynn], why do you not make hay? To which she replied, If your Majesty and your Nobles will cock as much as you can, I will spread for you all.
1903		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1948		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 247: A lady came in for some covers one day. / ‘What will you have?’ said I. / ‘Spread,’ she said, and spread her I did.
1953		S. Bellow Augie March (1996) 267: There’s still another sister who’s a tramp and spreads on the stairs.
1963		M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 95: I know this is old sad hat, but I had to spread for anyone who wanted me [...] Do you think it damages a girl to sleep around?
1972		R.A. Wilson Playboy’s Book of Forbidden Words 234: She’s been spreading for the whole town.
1986		J. Ellroy Silent Terror 56: [T]hey've got a pad off the Strip, and they spread all night for a tensky.

2. (US gay, also spread apart) to sodomize or to be sodomized.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 89: anal intercourse [...] spread somebody [apart]. [Ibid.] 155: Spread (submit) once and he’s a marked woman or punk for the rest of his semester (time).

1. (US, also spread it, spread it on thick, spread oneself) to exaggerate or elaborate.

1865		‘Mark Twain’ Early Tales & Sketches (1981) 154: Don’t you think he is spreading it on rather thick?
1874		Fayetteville Wkly Democrat (AR) 12 Dec. 2/1: These carpet-bag patriots are over-doing the thing — spreading it on too thick.
1896		Caldwel Advance (KS) 18 Dec. 5/1: Chris [...] settled the case [...] by paying the constable fees and $55 damages. That looks like it was spreading it on pretty thick.
1905		Leavenworth Times (KS) 16 Mar. 2/3: That is spreading it on pretty thick but it may pay us all to watch and see.
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Oct. 12/3: The evidence was just as lop-sided as in the previous case, and the subsequent wife was just as much of a bad egg as the previous husband; but Madden quite forgot to spread himself, and merely granted a decree nisi without remarks. Possibly he had exhausted himself by the earlier outbreak.
1918		J.N. Hall High Adventure 115: That’s spreading it, Dunham.
1929		Indiana Wkly Messenger (PA) 14 Feb. 11/4: Motorist — I was in the worst jam last night [...] Friend — But aren’t you spreading it too thick?
1942		Decatur Dly Rev. (IL) 10 Feb. 8/1: Minister Goebbels [...] may be spreading his propaganda too thick to carry conviction.
1953		(ref. to c.1890) C. Sandburg Always the Young Strangers 163: ‘Guff’ was chatter and you were ‘spreading it on too thick’.
1969		Times Recorder (Zanesville, OH) 24 Aug. 4/4: Could one say this is spreading it on a bit thick?
1976		San Bernardino Co. Sun (CA) 21 May 36/1: President Ford is so anxious to be elected he is really spreading it on thick with untrue statements.

2. to live well; thus spread it thin v., to live in poverty.

[1891		Graphic (London) 14 Mar. 11/1: Some have it spread over seventy years spread thin like the poor man’s dripping].
1923		J. Manchon Le Slang.

(US black) to have a good time, to celebrate, to have sex.

1934		N. Cunard Negro in Hurston Folkore, Memoirs & Others Writings (1995) 838: The self-despisement lies in a middle class who scorns to do or be anything Negro. [. . . .] [T]he Negro ‘farthest down’ is too busy ‘spreading his junk’ in his own way to see or care.
1935		Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 67: They put me on the table and everybody urged me to spread my jenk, so I did the best I could.

(US prison) to borrow from a number of people.

2000

Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Spread Your Shots: Borrow elsewhere. ‘It’s okay for now, but why don’t you spread your shots?’ Also referred to as ‘Spread your hustle.’.

(W.I.) to relax, to ‘let off steam’.

1995

Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 49: Spread-out to let oneself go; let loose.

see under relevant n.

(UK Und.) to a car driver, accelerate!

1943

R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 284: ‘Spread ’em, for Christ’s sake.’ [...] ‘I’m spreading me tootsies on the dinger. Here we go, lads.’ The big car went out as if another car inside of it was just using it for a garage.