Rushed to the food that was spread out (9)

I believe the answer is:

hotfooted

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'spread out' is the definition.
The answer and definition are different parts of speech. However, adjectives and past participle verbs sometimes mean the same thing.

'rushed to the food' is the wordplay.
'rushed' indicates anagramming the letters.
'to'+'the'+'food'='tothefood'
'tothefood' anagrammed gives 'HOTFOOTED'.

'that was' is the link.

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I've seen this clue in The Daily Express.

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