a. [f. WIDE adv. + SPREADING ppl. a.] Spreading widely (lit. and fig.).
1. Extending over or occupying a wide space; nearly = prec. 1.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. iii. 222. Wide-spreading Plains, open and spacious Fields.
1743. Francis, trans. Hor., Odes, I. xvii. 5. The vales, wide-spreading round The sloping hills.
1809–11. Combe, Syntax, XVII. 184. Beneath an oak’s wide-spreading shade.
1850. R. G. Cumming, Hunter’s Life S. Afr. (1902), 57/2. A number of cattle … came to drink at the pit. Some of these carried enormous wide-spreading horns.
1862. Spencer, First Princ., II. xvi. § 131 (1875), 367. Wide-spreading marine currents.
1909. E. H. Burton, Bp. Challoner, II. 278. One old wide-spreading cedar.
2. Extending to, reaching, or affecting mony places or persons; extensive in effect; far-reaching; nearly = prec. 2.
1766. Complete Farmer, s.v. Thistle, 7 K 4/1. To prevent the wide-spreading mischiefs occasioned by the seeding of this pernicious weed.
1833. J. H. Newman, Arians, III. i. (1876), 241. That wide-spreading Association, of which the faith of the Gospel was the uniting and animating principle.
1842. in Westm. Gaz. (1903), July, 2/3. The wide-spreading distress of the working-classes.
1902. [M. H. Grant], Words by an Eyewitness, 336. Kindliness, not little but vast, wide-spreading.
