(stress var.), a. (Also as one word, without hyphen.) [f. WIDE adv. + spread, pa. pple. of SPREAD v.] Spread widely (lit. and fig.).
1. Extended over or occupying a wide space; broad in spatial extent.
1735. Somerville, Chase, I. 250. Strait Hams, and wide-spread Thighs.
1816. Wordsw., Ode, ‘Who rises on the banks of Seine,’ 4. How sweet to rest her wide-spread wings beneath!
1863. A. C. Ramsay, Phys. Geog., 124. On the western parts of the Weald,… there are some very wide-spread heaths.
1878. Hardy, Ret. Native, I. iii. A wide-spread woman whose stays creaked like shoes whenever she stooped or turned.
2. Distributed over a wide region; occurring in many places or among many persons; extensively or generally diffused.
1705. Berkeley, Commonpl. Bk., Wks. 1871, IV. 434. The vast, wide-spread, universal cause of our mistakes.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. I. ii. The cardinal symptom of the whole wide-spread malady.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., i. I. 11. The Danish and Saxon tongues, both dialects of one widespread language, were blended together.
1880. Wallace, Isl. Life, 29. The relics of once widespread types.
1913. R. Lucas, Ld. North, II. 112. The demand for economical reform was … widespread.
So (irreg.) Wide-spreaded a. rare.
1821. Keats, Lamia, I. 354. The wide-spreaded night above her towers.
