splay

Etymology

From Middle English splayen, an abbreviated form of Middle English displayen (“to display”). More at display.

verb

1. To spread; spread out.
   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.

adj

1. Spread out; turned outward.
   to sit splay-legged
2. Flat and ungainly.
   splay shoulders
   Something splay, something blunt-edged, unhandy, and infelicitous. 1873, Matthew Arnold, Literature and Dogma

noun

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.