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Stream vs Spread - What's the difference?

stream | spread |

In lang=en terms the difference between stream and spread

is that stream is to flow in a continuous or steady manner, like a liquid while spread is to cover (something) with a thin layer of some substance, as of butter.

As nouns the difference between stream and spread

is that stream is a small river; a large creek; a body of moving water confined by banks while spread is the act of spreading or something that has been spread.

As verbs the difference between stream and spread

is that stream is to flow in a continuous or steady manner, like a liquid while spread is to stretch out, open out (a material etc) so that it more fully covers a given area of space.

stream

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A small river; a large creek; a body of moving water confined by banks.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges over the cold trout-streams , the boards giving back the clatter of our horses' feet:
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-01, author=Nancy Langston, volume=101, issue=1, page=59
  • , magazine=(American Scientist) , title= The Fraught History of a Watery World , passage=European adventurers found themselves within a watery world, a tapestry of streams , channels, wetlands, lakes and lush riparian meadows enriched by floodwaters from the Mississippi River.}}
  • A thin connected passing of a liquid through a lighter gas (e.g. air).
  • Any steady flow or succession of material, such as water, air, radio signal or words.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=10 citation , passage=With a little manœuvring they contrived to meet on the doorstep which was […] in a boiling stream of passers-by, hurrying business people speeding past in a flurry of fumes and dust in the bright haze.}}
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 21, author=Helen Pidd
  • , title=Europeans migrate south as continent drifts deeper into crisis, work=the Guardian citation , passage=A new stream of migrants is leaving the continent. It threatens to become a torrent if the debt crisis continues to worsen.}}
  • (sciences) An umbrella term for all moving waters.
  • (computing) A source or repository of data that can be read or written only sequentially.
  • (UK, education) A division of a school year by perceived ability.
  • Synonyms

    * beck * brook * burn * creek * flow * rill

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To flow in a continuous or steady manner, like a liquid.
  • * Milton
  • beneath those banks where rivers stream
  • * 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4
  • When I came to myself I was lying, not in the outer blackness of the Mohune vault, not on a floor of sand; but in a bed of sweet clean linen, and in a little whitewashed room, through the window of which the spring sunlight streamed .
  • To extend; to stretch out with a wavy motion; to float in the wind.
  • A flag streams in the wind.
  • (Internet) To push continuous data (e.g. music) from a server to a client computer while it is being used (played) on the client.
  • Anagrams

    * ----

    spread

    English

    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)

    Synonyms

    * disseminate * circulate * propagate * put about

    Derived terms

    * spread betting

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of spreading or something that has been spread.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • No flower hath spread like that of the woodbine.
  • An expanse of land.
  • * Addison
  • I have got a fine spread of improvable land.
  • A large tract of land used to raise livestock; a cattle ranch.
  • * 2005 , , 00:11:50:
  • - Can’t wait till I get my own spread and won’t have to put up with Joe Aguirre’s crap no more.
    - I’m savin’ for a place myself.
  • A piece of material used as a cover (such as a bedspread).
  • A large meal, especially one laid out on a table.
  • Any form of food designed to be spread such as butters or jams
  • An item in a newspaper or magazine that occupies more than one column or page.
  • A numerical difference.
  • (business, economics) The difference between the wholesale and retail prices.
  • (trading, economics, finance) The difference between the price of a futures month and the price of another month of the same commodity.
  • (trading, finance) The purchase of a futures contract of one delivery month against the sale of another futures delivery month of the same commodity.
  • (trading, finance) The purchase of one delivery month of one commodity against the sale of that same delivery month of a different commodity.
  • (trading) An arbitrage transaction of the same commodity in two markets, executed to take advantage of a profit from price discrepancies.
  • (trading) The difference between bidding and asking price.
  • (finance) The difference between the prices of two similar items.
  • (geometry) An unlimited expanse of discontinuous points.
  • Synonyms

    * straddle

    Statistics

    *