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strew
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
strew
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
wreckage is strewn/scattered/spread
▪ The wreckage was strewn over a large area.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
about
▪ Odd pieces of broken and split machinery were strewn about or propped against the walls.
▪ There was socialist literature strewn about.
▪ Diving below the dusky water's surface I see twenty chairs or so strewn about on the pool floor.
▪ Information baubles and still usable pop-culture tidbits are strewn about.
▪ And there are flowers in their hair and loose yellow flowers strewn about under their bare feet on the ground.
▪ We were at a little secluded cove, with large boulders strewn about, the debris of some long-past hillside.
▪ The 1995 team saw body parts strewn about callously by the robbers in their mad quest for anything of value.
▪ All the signs of this malaise are here, strewn about like empty Guinness cans on a Sunday morning.
around
▪ It's not so much the snow; more the salt that gets strewn around.
▪ The land was flatter here and there were fewer boulders strewn around.
▪ There were clothes strewn around on the floor.
▪ The interior of the stricken aircraft was chaotic, with the passengers' belongings strewn around clogging the gangway.
▪ There are also diamonds strewn around the landscape: collecting 100 earns Turry a continue-play.
▪ Depleted uranium shells used by the Allies are strewn around.
▪ Houshold rubbish and builders waste strewn around some of the most picturesque parts of the forest.
over
▪ The wreckage was strewn over an area of 150-yard radius, confirming the official's description.
■ NOUN
clothes
▪ The room was strewn with clothes and shoes and bags and stank like a school cloakroom.
floor
▪ Diamonds and rare jewels were strewn across the floor as if they had been there for millennia.
▪ I followed him to a room in which bundles of magazines lay strewn on the floor.
▪ The lilac tablecloths were still strewn across the floor where they had been pulled to the ground.
▪ Lots of half-chewed Yorkie plastic distractions are strewn across the floor.
▪ There were clothes strewn around on the floor.
▪ I picked my way through the remains of the cat biryani strewed across the floor.
▪ Empty food dishes were strewn across the floor and two milk bottles were in the bath, one full of solidified milk.
▪ Champagne bottles were strewn about the floor.
path
▪ Have you any tips to help me or warnings of difficulties that strew my path?
▪ Crises will strew his path to test his mettle.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Diamonds and rare jewels were strewn across the floor as if they had been there for millennia.
▪ Diving below the dusky water's surface I see twenty chairs or so strewn about on the pool floor.
▪ I went into the bedroom first and saw all the drawers pulled out, the clothes strewn everywhere.
▪ Now, outside tightly packed row houses in Boston, Cambridge and Somerville, the streets are strewn with debris.
▪ Odd pieces of broken and split machinery were strewn about or propped against the walls.
▪ Scabbards, broken arms, artillery horses, wrecks of gun carriages, and bloody garments strewed the scene.
▪ There was socialist literature strewn about.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Strew

Strew \Strew\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Strewed; p. p. strewn; p. pr. & vb. n. Strewing.] [OE. strewen, strawen, AS. strewian, stre['o]wian; akin to Ofries. strewa, OS. strewian, D. strooijen, G. streuen, OHG. strewen, Icel. str[=a], Sw. str["o], Dan. str["o]e, Goth. straujan, L. sternere, stratum, Gr. ?, ?, Skr. st?. [root]166. Cf. Stratum, Straw, Street.]

  1. 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.

    And strewed his mangled limbs about the field.
    --Dryden.

    On a principal table a desk was open and many papers [were] strewn about.
    --Beaconsfield.

  2. 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.

    The snow which does the top of Pindus strew.
    --Spenser.

    Is thine alone the seed that strews the plain?
    --Pope.

  3. To spread abroad; to disseminate.

    She may strew dangerous conjectures.
    --Shak.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
strew

Old English strewian, streowian "to scatter," from Proto-Germanic *strawjan- (cognates: Old Frisian strewa, Old Saxon strowian, Old Norse stra, Danish strø, Swedish strö, Middle Dutch strowen, Dutch strooien, Old High German strouwen, German streuen, Gothic straujan "to sprinkle, strew"), from PIE root *stere- "to spread, extend, stretch out" (see structure (n.)). Related: Strewed; strewn; strewing.

Wiktionary
strew

vb. 1 To distribute objects or pieces of something over an area, especially in a random manner. 2 To cover, or lie upon, by having been scattered. 3 (context transitive English) To spread abroad; to disseminate.

Related phrases:
WordNet
strew

  1. v. spread by scattering ("straw" is archaic); "strew toys all over the carpet" [syn: straw]

  2. cover; be dispersed over; "Dead bodies strewed the ground"

  3. [also: strewn]

Wikipedia
Related phrases:

Usage examples of "strew".

The site was strewn with a second material as well, a kind of dark balsa wood, very soft to the touch.

The games arcade is as stuffed as ever, the floor strewn with Woozle Pup wrappers and crunched clear plastic bento boxes and chopsticks from The Great Teriyaki Experience!

Aislinn acquiesced, strewing rushes for herself and Corra ni Brith, spreading out her cloak, banking the fire.

On the docks, crude hand-made shrines memorializing Manion the Innocent were strewn with flowers and colorful shells.

Lo Manto walked past the pile of empty boxes and strewn wrappers and pushed open a large wooden door.

Leaflets were printed and strewed around the city, and the Venusians came to watch Munn and Thirkell demonstrating the merits of Roentgen rays.

Larch chose to be an obstetrician because the loss of his parents inspired him to bring more children into the world, but the road that led Larch to obstetrics was strewn with bacteria.

The workshop floor was strewn with straw and sawdust, offcuts from his contraption.

But in a few hours order would be reestablished because she at last took pity on so much silk strewn on the floor, so many leftover brocades and useless pieces of passementerie, so many silver fox tails, all condemned to the fire.

He managed to get the whole soggy mess into the pulper without dribbling more than a few drops on his paper strewn desk or on his maroon jacket.

Groves was, by day, strewn with drying films and mounts, and her old and favourite cat had a bald patch on his flank, the result of a mishap with the pyrogallic acid.

People who strew corn broadcast for a lot of feathered inanities that just sit about cooing and giving each other the glad eye in a Louis Quatorze manner are pretty certain to do you well.

As we drove back along roads strewn with rotting human remains and other wrecked remnants of society, I began to wonder what was next.

Two dark parabolas in a field of yellow, slight 3-D interest provided by the scurf strewn about.

The acid seems to be secreted quickly, for in one case the secretion from the discal glands, on which a little powdered casein had been strewed, coloured litmus paper, before any of the exterior tentacles were inflected.