spread-eagle

comparative more spread-eagle · superlative most spread-eagle

1. Lying with arms and legs outstretched and separated.
2. USdatedCharacterized by a pretentious, boastful, exaggerated style; bombastic.

   But Mr. Lloyd is not a spread-eagle patriot, or much given to political partisanship.

   1894, The Arena, volume 10, page 581

   2 more examples

   Our former townsman, Mr. G. F. Train, has recently made a tremendous spread-eagle speech in England, upon the occasion of the reopening of trade between Liverpool and New Zealand […]

   c. 1857, unknown author, from Boston Gazette, quoted in George Francis Train, Spread-eagleism, page 88 (1859)

   The firm did a large and lucrative business from the start, the orders from spread-eagle orators often taxing the full capacity of its works.

   1900, The Nation, volume 70, page 101

present singular third person spread-eagles · participle present spread-eagling · participle past spread-eagled · past spread-eagled

1. transitiveTo put into a spread-eagle position, with arms and legs extended and spread.
2. intransitiveTo put one's body in a spread eagle.