billowverb [ I ]
uk/ˈbɪl.əʊ/us/ˈbɪl.oʊ/to spread over a large area, or (especially of things made of cloth) to become filled with air and appear to be larger:
Smoke billowed (out) from the burning building.
The sheets/shirts hanging on the line billowed in the breeze.
We watched the boats with their billowing sails.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Spreading and scattering
- all over the place idiom
- bedaub
- bestrew
- circulate
- cross-contamination
- go round (somewhere)
- go/do the rounds idiom
- percolate
- radial
- radiate
- scatter
- slap
- spread
- spread out
- sprinkling
- straggle
- stretch
- strew
- suffuse
- sweep
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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
Becoming bigger
billow
noun [ C usually plural ] ukus
billows of smoke