Library / English Dictionary

INTERSPERSE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Introduce one's writing or speech with certain expressions

Synonyms:

interlard; intersperse

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "intersperse" is one way to...):

enclose; inclose; insert; introduce; put in; stick in (place, fit, or thrust (something) into another thing)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "intersperse"):

interleave (intersperse alternately, as of protective covers for book illustrations)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something PP

Derivation:

interspersion (the act of combining one thing at intervals among other things)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Place at intervals in or among

Example:

intersperse exclamation marks in the text

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "intersperse" is one way to...):

lay; place; pose; position; put; set (put into a certain place or abstract location)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "intersperse"):

interleave (intersperse the sectors on the concentric magnetic circular patterns written on a computer disk surface to guide the storing and recording of data)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

interspersal; interspersion (the act of combining one thing at intervals among other things)

Credits

 Context examples: 

It had no park, but the pleasure-grounds were tolerably extensive; and like every other place of the same degree of importance, it had its open shrubbery, and closer wood walk, a road of smooth gravel winding round a plantation, led to the front, the lawn was dotted over with timber, the house itself was under the guardianship of the fir, the mountain-ash, and the acacia, and a thick screen of them altogether, interspersed with tall Lombardy poplars, shut out the offices.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Trees played a critical role in stopping the slides, and the researchers suggest that planting more trees - perhaps interspersed with rice fields - in areas that are intensively irrigated might reduce the risk of soil liquefaction.

(NASA Map Reveals a New Landslide Risk Factor, NASA)

In the meanwhile also the black ground was covered with herbage, and the green banks interspersed with innumerable flowers, sweet to the scent and the eyes, stars of pale radiance among the moonlight woods; the sun became warmer, the nights clear and balmy; and my nocturnal rambles were an extreme pleasure to me, although they were considerably shortened by the late setting and early rising of the sun, for I never ventured abroad during daylight, fearful of meeting with the same treatment I had formerly endured in the first village which I entered.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)