STREW (strewn)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: strewn   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does strew mean? 

• STREW (verb)
  The verb STREW has 2 senses:

1. spread by scattering (

2. cover; be dispersed over

  Familiarity information: STREW used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• STREW (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they strew    ... he / she / it strews   
Past simple: strewed   
Past participle: strewn   
-ing form: strewing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Spread by scattering (

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

straw; strew

Context example:

strew toys all over the carpet

Hypernyms (to "strew" is one way to...):

distribute; spread (distribute or disperse widely)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "strew"):

bestrew (cover by strewing)

litter (make a place messy by strewing garbage around)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

Sentence example:

They strew papers over the floor

Derivation:

strewing (the act of scattering)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cover; be dispersed over

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

Dead bodies strewed the ground

Hypernyms (to "strew" is one way to...):

cover; spread over (form a cover over)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

They strew the floor with papers

 Context examples 

Researchers using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope propose that warm Neptune-size planets with clouds of helium may be strewn about the galaxy by the thousands.

(Helium-Shrouded Planets May Be Common in Our Galaxy, NASA)

Oh, just let some peas be strewn in the ante-chamber, answered the lion, and then you will soon see.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

And now I may dismiss my heroine to the sleepless couch, which is the true heroine's portion; to a pillow strewed with thorns and wet with tears.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

To the south of Pampeluna in the kingdom of Navarre there stretched a high table-land, rising into bare, sterile hills, brown or gray in color, and strewn with huge boulders of granite.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I passed the night under the shelter of a rock, strewing some heath under me, and slept pretty well.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

You’ve worked long and hard without complaint, even when the road was strewn with sharp rocks and obstacles at every turn.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

But the long cactus-strewn levels still stretched away, empty and bare, to the distant line of the cane-brake.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They limped painfully down the bank, and once the foremost of the two men staggered among the rough-strewn rocks.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

The noise of wheels and tread of people were as hushed, as if the streets had been strewn that depth with feathers.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

In this were the shaft of a pick broken in two and the boards of several packing-cases strewn around.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)