If you are sprawled somewhere, you are sitting or lying with your legs and arms spread out in a careless way. People are sprawled on makeshift beds in the cafeteria. be/lie/sit sprawled (out) to be lying or sitting with your arms or legs stretched out in a lazy or careless way
spread out irregularly; "sat sprawled in the big armchair"; "the sprawling suburbs"; "a big sprawly city
an elementary counter to a leg shot The wrestler throws his legs back, arching his hips into the opponent if necessary, making it harder to keep a grip on his legs
A haphazard and disorderly form of urban development There are several elements that characterize sprawl: Residences far removed from stores, parks, and other activity centers Scattered or "leapfrog" development that leaves large tracts of undeveloped land between developments Commercial strip development along major streets Large expanses of low-density or single use development such as commercial centers with no office or residential uses, or residential areas with no nearby commercial centers Major form of transportation is the automobile Uninterrupted and contiguous low- to medium-density (one to six du/ac) urban development Walled residential subdivisions that do not connect to adjacent residential development
If you say that a place sprawls, you mean that it covers a large area of land. The State Recreation Area sprawls over 900 acres on the southern tip of Key Biscayne
You can use sprawl to refer to an area where a city has grown outwards in an uncontrolled way. The whole urban sprawl of Ankara contains over 2.6m people. a large area of buildings that are spread out in an untidy and unattractive way
If you sprawl somewhere, you sit or lie down with your legs and arms spread out in a careless way. She sprawled on the bed as he had left her, not even moving to cover herself up see also sprawled Sprawl out means the same as sprawl. He would take two aspirin and sprawl out on his bed
an ungainly posture with arms and legs spread about sit or lie with one's limbs spread out go, come, or spread in a rambling or irregular way; "Branches straggling out quite far
A term getting increasing publicity in even mainstream media, sprawl refers to the uncontrolled spread of urban and suburban development farther and farther away from the urban core There are many causes of this phenomenon, but contrary to what you might have heard from the National Association of Homebuilders, sprawl is NOT caused because it is what consumers want Occasionally, sprawl is portrayed as a liberal vs conservative issue, with liberals concerned about sprawl and conservatives (as is usual) with their head in the sand Actually, sprawl is a conservative issue as well when one takes a look at the root causes, which include too much government regulation, market distorting incentives, and excessive and complicated taxation policies Like global warming, sprawl is an environmental issue with widespread ramifications for much of society Learn more at: the Sierra Club
The process in which the spread of development across the landscape far outpaces population growth The landscape sprawl creates has four dimensions: a population that is widely dispersed in low-density development; rigidly separated homes, shops, and workplaces; a network of roads marked by huge blocks and poor access; and a lack of well-defined, thriving activity centers, such as downtowns and town centers Most of the other features usually associated with sprawl-the lack of transportation choices, relative uniformity of housing options or the difficulty of walking-are a result of these conditions (Smart Growth America)
Outward spread of cities as their populations increase that is marked by much less efficient use of land than in the older sections of the cities With sprawl, a city's land area grows at a much faster rate than its population
Poorly planned development that destroys green space, threatens the environment, increases traffic, overcrowds schools, and spends tax money to build new infrastructure
Low density development on the edge of cities and towns, poorly planned, land consumptive, auto-dependent, and designed without respect to its surroundings
Unlimited outward extension of city boundaries that lowers population density, consumes open space, generates freeway congestion, and causes decay in central cities