broadcast

Definition

Cast or scattered widely in all directions; cast abroad.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-der.? Proto-Germanic *braidaz Proto-West Germanic *braid Old English brād Middle English brod English broad Proto-Germanic *kas- Proto-Germanic *kastōną Old Norse kastabor. Middle English casten English cast English broadcast From broad + cast. First attested in the mid 18th century, in the agricultural use of spreading seeds.

Example Sentences

• "The seed was broadcast, not drilled."
• "And ſuch a double Sowing is of the greateſt Importance; for on the thick Growth of a Crop very much depends on the Bigneſs of it at Harveſt, becauſe, by ſuch a thick Growth, the Weeds are overcome and kept down from hurting the Oats; and, likewiſe, the Heats and Droughts kept the better out from parching up the Roots of the Oats, which, in too thin a Crop, often prove fatal to it; for, when Oats are ſown in the random or broadcaſt Way, there is no more Mold allowed their Roots than what the Harrows and Roll give them; which, at beſt, is but a ſuperficial and moſt thin Covering, and, therefore, the more liable to ſuffer by Droughts, which is different from the Way of ſowing Oats in Drills."
• "They alleged that, as soon as the Opium Commission was appointed, the various anti-opium organisations began to be extremely active and a determined campaign was carried on against the use of the drug by the circulation of a mass of anti-opium literature and the broadcast distribution of handbills and pamphlets."