spread eagle

1. 1.

   an emblem (an eagle with wings and legs spread) on the obverse of the Great Seal of the United States

   Broaderemblem
2. 2.

   a skating figure executed with the skates heel to heel in a straight line

   Broaderfigure

Questions about spread eagle

What does spread eagle mean?

spread eagle means "an emblem (an eagle with wings and legs spread) on the obverse of the Great Seal of the United States". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

Is spread eagle a common word?

spread eagle is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.