What's the difference between sprawl and strew?

Sprawl


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To spread and stretch the body or limbs carelessly in a horizontal position; to lie with the limbs stretched out ungracefully.
  • (v. i.) To spread irregularly, as vines, plants, or tress; to spread ungracefully, as chirography.
  • (v. i.) To move, when lying down, with awkward extension and motions of the limbs; to scramble in creeping.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Stonehenge stood at the heart of a sprawling landscape of chapels, burial mounds, massive pits and ritual shrines, according to an unprecedented survey of the ancient grounds.
  • (2) Arvind Kejriwal, leader of a new populist political party "dedicated to improving the lot of the common man", announced on Monday that he would form a government to run the sprawling, troubled and increasingly wealthy city of 15 million people.
  • (3) Endless utilitarian apartment blocks and gigantic hotels sprawl seemingly at random in the so-called "coastal cluster".
  • (4) Last night, the trouble spread to the mainly Asian suburb of Manningham, an area of sprawling and deprived terraced housing estates.
  • (5) Attorneys for people caught on the US’s sprawling terrorism watchlists are expressing concern that the latest tactic by gun control advocates is blessing the legitimacy of a process they say threatens civil rights.
  • (6) When I arrived, I couldn’t make sense of the sprawling, low-slung place at all.
  • (7) Near the entrance was a sprawling camp kitchen, with mountains of supplies, indoor and outdoor facilities and open fires on which some of the cooking was done, and all of the gigantic vats of coffee seemed to be boiled.
  • (8) But as developing the sprawling suburbs has been the guiding planning principle for decades, there is little expertise in neither the public nor the private sector to all of a sudden begin building urban neighbourhoods.
  • (9) he told the Guardian in his office in a low-rise building inside the sprawling grounds of the Afghan foreign ministry.
  • (10) As she gazes down from her plane at the sprawling Amazon jungle below, she will hope and pray that, with a number of giant infrastructure projects planned in the region, history is not about to repeat itself.
  • (11) From his 19th-floor newsroom Eurípedes Alcântara enjoys a spectacular view over the "new Brazil"; helicopters flit through the afternoon sky, shiny new cars honk their way across town, tower blocks and luxury shopping centres sprout like turnips from the urban sprawl.
  • (12) Their red and black flag flies above several of the tents in Kiev's sprawling downtown protest city; young volunteers – unarmed but wearing khaki fatigues – have commandeered a boutique and a city council office.
  • (13) Inside, people slept sprawled on the platforms and in the booking hall.
  • (14) The fossil fuel resistance, like the fossil fuel industry, is protean and sprawling – and each win reverberates for decades to come, because that’s how long pipelines and coal mines are built to last.
  • (15) They had a sprawling back garden on two tiers and with a steep bank down to the main road below; this was where the big bonfire used to burn.
  • (16) 10.01pm BST North Avenue Beach From a 95th floor lookout over Chicago's sprawling downtown … to the beach, in under 10 minutes.
  • (17) They once journeyed six hours out of sprawling Mexico City to deliver an order, using specially designed backpacks that protect the food from the city’s potholed streets.
  • (18) Tapajós was investigating the head of an illegal gambling cartel, Carlinos Cachoeira – also known as Charlie Waterfall – and his sprawling web of influence.
  • (19) Wednesday's demonstration flight was mostly carrying representatives from Indonesian airlines, which are rapidly expanding to serve a burgeoning middle class in the sprawling archipelago where air travel between islands is a quicker alternative to ferries.
  • (20) It's an extraordinary, sprawling world, powered by magic and steampunk technology, populated by humans, cactus-people, insectoid, amphibian and avian races, dripping with myths and monsters and menaced by repressive regimes.

Strew


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To scatter; to spread by scattering; to cast or to throw loosely apart; -- used of solids, separated or separable into parts or particles; as, to strew seed in beds; to strew sand on or over a floor; to strew flowers over a grave.
  • (v. t.) To cover more or less thickly by scattering something over or upon; to cover, or lie upon, by having been scattered; as, they strewed the ground with leaves; leaves strewed the ground.
  • (v. t.) To spread abroad; to disseminate.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Strew with oregano and thyme leaves and drizzle with the pan juices.
  • (2) There is a further problem strewed across the path of repeal.
  • (3) Ester + Matt describe their fictional city as 'one part country, two parts awesome and everything about who they are' " – Green Wedding Shoes ignores the fact that most problems at a reception centre around in-law controversy and inappropriate best man behaviour, rather than how to strew bunting around your favourite converted barn.
  • (4) 8.05pm BST I didn't have time to bake but I have got a table strew with shop-bought treats and a dab of flour on my nose for authenticity.