Overspreads

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Extensively covers or spreads over a surface or area
2. Spreads out broadly to cover a wide space
3. Covers something in a wide or sweeping manner

Etymology: "Overspreads" is the third-person singular present form of "overspread," so it is the verb's present-tense form for he, she, or it. The verb goes back to Old English "ofersprǣdan," a combination of "ofer" (over) and "sprǣdan" (to spread), and it has cognates in Dutch "overspreiden" and German "überspreiten," which carry the same sense of covering a surface. The verb is a plain compound: "over-" attached to "spread," with the sense of spreading across or upon something. Its Middle English form, "overspreden," carried the same literal idea of extending over a surface, and that spatial meaning has stayed intact across the centuries, which is why the word still reads as a picture of something extending its coverage.

Synonyms: envelopes, covers