Other forms: sprawling, sprawled, sprawls
To sprawl is to sit or lie with your limbs spread out carelessly. Sprawl on the sofa, sprawled across the seat, sprawling limbs.
The carelessness is the point, which is why sprawling on public transport is a complaint. Urban sprawl is the spreading of low-density building outward from a city, and it is the same image — something spreading without shape. Note that the Old English verb meant to move convulsively.
1verbsprawlTo sit or lie with limbs spread out carelessly.
“The teenager sprawled on the sofa with his feet on the cushions.”
2nounlowLow-density building spreading outward from a city.
“Suburban sprawl has swallowed up the farmland around the city.”
sprawl is a spreading out.
Old English spreawlian means to move convulsively. Sprout comes from a related spreading.
Proto-Indo-European
*sper- — to strew
Old English
spreawlian — move convulsively
Middle English
spraulen
English, today
sprawl
Built from
From Middle English spraulen, from Old English spreawlian (“move convulsively”), ultimately through a Proto-Germanic - form cognate with spreutaną (“to sprout”) from Proto-Indo-European sper- (“to strew”). Compare frr spraweli, Norwegian sprala, Swedish sprala.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Ways of Moving