SPREAD ONESELF TOO THIN Definition & Meaning

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spread oneself too thin

To engage in so many activities that one can't perform any of them well: “Last semester, Pamela tried to play basketball, serve on the student council, and work at her father's store. She quickly discovered that she was spreading herself too thin.”

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Idioms and Phrases

Overextend oneself, undertake too many different enterprises. For example, Tom's exhausted; what with work, volunteer activities, and social life he's spread himself too thin . This expression alludes to smearing something (like butter on bread) in such a thin layer that it does not cover the surface. Jonathan Swift used spread thin in a positive sense, that is, something should occur less often ( Polite Conversation , 1731–1738): “They [polite speeches] ought to be husbanded better, and spread much thinner.”

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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spread oneself too thin

Idioms and Phrases