Wide1, a.
a. [compar. WIDER; superl. WIDEST.] [A-S., O. Sax., & O. Fries. wid, L. Ger. wied, D. wijd, Icel. viðr, Sw. & Dan. við, O. H. Ger. wit, N. H. Ger. weit.]
Sense 1. Having a great extent every way; extended; spacious; broad; vast; as, a wide plain; the wide ocean. “Men of strongest head and widest culture.” M. Arnold.
For sceptred cynics earth were far too wide a den. Byron.
Sense 2. Having considerable distance or extent between the sides; spacious across; much extended in a direction at right angles to that of length; not narrow; broad; as, wide cloth; a wide table; a wide highway; a wide bed; a wide hall or entry.
Wide is the gate . . . that leadeth to destruction. Matt. vii. 13.
Sense 3. Of a certain measure between the sides; measuring in a direction at right angles to that of length; as, a table three feet wide.
Sense 4. Remote; distant.
The contrary being so wide from the truth of the Scriptures and the attributes of God. Hammond.
Sense 5. Far from truth, from propriety, from necessity, or the like. [Obs.] “Our wide expositors.” Milton. It is far wide that the people have such judgments. Latimer.
How wide is all this long pretense! Herbert.
Sense 6. (Archery.) On one side or the other of the mark; far from the mark toward the side.
He shoots wide on the bow-hand. Spenser.
I was but two bows wide. Massinger.
Wide gauge. See GAUGE.
Wide is often used in the formation of self-explaining compounds; as, wide-beaming, wide-branched, wide-chopped, wide-echoing, wide-extended, wide-mouthed, wide-spread, wide-spreading, and the like.