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spread thin

Date: Nov 18 2010

Quote

1. Quote - Listen to the quote and guess what the slang means.

“If I spread myself too thin, I’m not a good actor, I’m not a good mother, and I’m just really stressed and everybody hates me.”

- Actress Katherine Heigl on balancing work and motherhood.

Definition

1. Definition - Study the definition.

Go Super to Listen

try to do too much at once

2. Use - Learn how the slang is used.

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Imagine you have a big piece of toast and just a little butter. You’ll have to spread that butter pretty thin if you want to cover the whole piece of toast. In the same way, when you have a lot of things to do and a limited amount of time and energy, you may end up feeling like you are spread thin.

When a person is spread thin, she is really busy. She may be trying to do too many things at once. For example, the actress Katherine Heigl has to be careful not to spread herself too thin by working a lot while also raising the baby girl she and her husband adopted from Korea. She says that when she is spread thin, she gets really stressed and the people around her suffer. Instead of doing one thing well, she does many things poorly.

Spread thin can work as a verb or an adjective. You can say that a person is spread thin, and that’s an adjective. Or you can say that someone spreads herself thin. That’s a verb. We can also say that things as well as people are spread thin. If money is spread thin, there isn’t enough of it to go around. Or if you’re trying to cook dinner, study for a test and chat with your friends while reading this lesson, your attention is probably spread thin.

Do you ever spread yourself thin? What kinds of things do you try to do at once?

Examples

1. Examples - Hear some example sentences.

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“Between work and taking care of the kids, Maggie has really been spread thin lately.”

“If you spread yourself thin at work, all your projects will suffer.”

“Marissa was spread so thin last week, she hardly had any time to relax. “

Winners

1. Winners - See who guessed the slang definition correctly.

	to try to do so many different things at the same time that you do not do any of them well by chomo
	if i do too much effort I spread myself too thin by monacovalentina
	To be involved in more activities than you can handle. by Gaby313
	do too many things in one time by DecapitatedLucia
	To try to do too many things at the same time, so that you cannot give enough time or attention to any of them. by kukuka
	To try to do many things simultaneously by sabeel

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Comments

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spacedragon

Brazil

sometimes im doing 3 or more things at once ,it' s crazy but necessary and cool …..

caeserramos

Brazil

In this moment of my life, i really need to be very spread thin, because i live alone and i have to study hard and work so many times.

Michelle.he

China

when life make me feel stressed and alwasys has something that you can't fix in daily life or work…It's really make me spread too much thin

bay_el

Turkey

it's not necessary being crazy, but it helps

levycrazy

China

As for me ,a lazy guy,I would always spread myself thin by doing the laundry,which drives me crazy .The good thing is that I'll feel happy and have a sense of achievement after doing that.Anyway ,It's not a good habit.I've been trying to get rid of that one,but never made it. Anybody has the same experience?

sara H

Saudi Arabia

I liked people how live as hard work person so im with be speand thin

Ryo

Saudi Arabia

Well now we do a lot of things at one time Write and see and breathe, etc. Most things are consistent and compatible with each other, etc. somtimes I do a lot of things The results are very beautiful More than focus on one thing It depends on harmony and on other things human not like butter

tiger_bagira

Greece

DONE

soufian_01

United Kingdom

to try to do many things at the same time

be sure that ur efforts will be negative

hermitlady

China

to do many things at the same time

koxa

Ukraine

Sometimes it happens when I'm pressed for time of doing something at work…but of course I'm trying to get rid of such approach solving of my work because my attention is really spread thin and I can do a lot of mistakes.

LoganWolf

Mexico

Oh my gosh! I always spread myself thin, 'cause I left all my things I have to do until last time. There are a lot of moments when I don't do anything, but then I need to do all my things in a short time, actually sometimes is good :D