Definition of "splay"

splay

/spleɪ/

verb
third-person singular simple present splays, present participle splaying, simple past and past participle splayed
1. To spread; spread out.
  Quotations
  our Ensignes splayed
  1576, George Gascoigne, Dulce bellum inexpertis
2. To dislocate, as a shoulder bone.
3. To turn on one side; to render oblique; to slope or slant, as the side of a door, window, etc.
4. (computing theory, transitive) To rearrange (a splay tree) so that a desired element is placed at the root.
5. (obsolete, UK, dialect) To spay; to castrate.
adjective
comparative more splay, superlative most splay
1. Spread out; turned outward.
2. Flat and ungainly.
  Quotations
  Something splay, something blunt-edged, unhandy, and infelicitous.
  1873, Matthew Arnold, Literature and Dogma
noun
plural splays
1. A slope or bevel, especially of the sides of a door or window, by which the opening is made larger at one face of the wall than at the other, or larger at each of the faces than it is between them.