Verb

To stretch out, open out (a material etc.) so that it more fully covers a given area of space.

To extend (individual rays, limbs etc.); to stretch out in varying or opposing directions.

To disperse, to scatter or distribute over a given area.

To proliferate; to become more widely present, to be disseminated.

*

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Old soldiers? , passage=Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine.

To disseminate; to cause to proliferate, to make (something) widely known or present.

To take up a larger area or space; to expand, be extended.

To smear, to distribute in a thin layer.

To cover (something) with a thin layer of some substance, as of butter.

To prepare; to set and furnish with provisions.

to spread a table

* Tennyson

Boiled the flesh, and spread the board.

(slang) To open one’s legs.

* 1984 , (Martin Amis), :

This often sounds like the rap of a demented DJ: the way she moves has got to be good news, can't get loose till I feel the juice— suck and spread , bitch, yeah bounce for me baby.

* 1991 , (Tori Amos), (Me and a Gun) :

Yes I wore a slinky red thing. Does that mean I should spread for you, your friends, your father, Mr Ed?

* 2003 , (Outkast), "Spread" (from the album ):

I don't want to move too fast, but / Can't resist your sexy ass / Just spread', ' spread for me; / (I can't, I can't wait to get you home)

Verb

To praise, glorify (someone or something, especially god).

* 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Acts X:

For they herde them speake with tonges, and magnify God.

* 1644 , (John Milton), (Aeropagitica) :

For he who freely magnifies what hath been nobly done, and fears not to declare as freely what might be done better, gives ye the best cov'nant of his fidelity [...].

To make (something) larger or more important.

* Grew

The least error in a small quantitybe proportionately magnified .

* {{quote-book, year=2006, author=(Edwin Black), title=Internal Combustion

, chapter=2 citation , passage=But through the oligopoly, charcoal fuel proliferated throughout London's trades and industries. By the 1200s, brewers and bakers, tilemakers, glassblowers, pottery producers, and a range of other craftsmen all became hour-to-hour consumers of charcoal. This only magnified the indispensable nature of the oligopolists.}}

To make (someone or something) appear greater or more important than it is; to intensify, exaggerate.

To make (something) appear larger by means of a lens, magnifying glass, telescope etc.

* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Catherine Clabby

, magazine=(American Scientist), title= Focus on Everything , passage=Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus. That’s because the lenses that are excellent at magnifying tiny subjects produce a narrow depth of field. A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that.}}

(intransitive, slang, obsolete) To have effect; to be of importance or significance.

(Spectator)