splay

• POS: Adjective, Noun, Verb (usu participle), Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

splay, v. t. [Abbrev. of display.].

•  To display; to spread.  Gascoigne.  [1913 Webster]
•  To dislocate, as a shoulder bone.  [1913 Webster]
•  To spay; to castrate.  [1913 Webster]
•  To turn on one side; to render oblique; to slope or slant, as the side of a door, window, etc.  Oxf. Gloss.  [1913 Webster]

splay, a. 

 Displayed; spread out; turned outward; hence, flat; ungainly; as, splay shoulders.  [1913 Webster]
"Sonwthing splay, something blunt-edged, unhandy, and infelicitous."  [1913 Webster]

splay, a. 

 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.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

splay, v., n., & adj.
--v.
1 tr. (usu. foll. by out) spread (the elbows, feet, etc.) out.
2 intr. (of an aperture or its sides) diverge in shape or position.
3 tr. construct (a window, doorway, aperture, etc.) so that it diverges or is wider at one side of the wall than the other.
--n. a surface making an oblique angle with another, e.g. the splayed side of a window or embrasure.
--adj.
1 wide and flat.
2 turned outward.

Idiom

splay-foot a broad flat foot turned outward. splay-footed having such feet.

Etymology

ME f. DISPLAY

THESAURUS

splay

aberrate, addition, adjunct, aggrandizement, ampliation, amplification, attenuation, augmentation, awkward, bestrew, branch, branch out, broadcast, broadcasting, broadening, circumfuse, circumfusion, crescendo, deal out, deltoid, deploy, deployment, diffract, diffraction, diffuse, diffusion, dilution, dispensation, dispense, dispersal, disperse, dispersion, dispread, disseminate, dissemination, dissipation, distribute, distribution, divaricate, diverge, divergence, divide, enlargement, evaporation, expand, expansion, extend, extension, fan, fan out, fan-shape, fan-shaped, fanlike, fanned, fanning, fanning out, flabelliform, flare, flared, flaring, fragmentation, gawky, go away, go off, hiking, increase, issue, lumbering, lumpish, magnification, open, open up, outspread, outstretch, outstretched, overgrow, overrun, overscatter, oversow, overspread, patulous, peppering, propagate, propagation, publication, publish, radiate, radiation, raising, ramify, retail, scatter, scattering, scatterment, separate, shotgun pattern, sow, sow broadcast, sowing, spattering, splayed, splaying, spraddle, spraddled, spraddling, sprangle, sprangled, sprangling, sprawl, sprawling, sprawly, spread, spread like wildfire, spread out, spreading, sprinkling, stretched-out, strew, strewing, unfold, unfolded, ungainly, upping, utter, volatilization, wide-open, widen, widening, widespread