Forms: 1– wide, (3 weide), 3–4 wid, 4–6 wyde, (4 Sc. vyde), 5 (6 Sc.) wyd. [OE. wįde OS. wîdo (MLG., MDu. wîde, Du. wijd), OHG. wîto (MHG. wîte, wît, G. weit), ON. víða (Sw., Norw. vida): advb. f. OE. wíd, etc. WIDE a.] = WIDELY, in various senses.
In modern texts freq. illogically hyphened to a pple.
1. Over or through a large space or region; so as to reach or affect many or various places or persons; far abroad. Chiefly poet. (superseded in prose by far and wide: see b).
Beowulf, 1403. Lastas wæron æfter waldswaþum wide ʓesyne.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt. xxiv. 7. Mann-cwealmas beoð & hungras wide ʓeond land.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 87. He wandrede wide, weruende longe, sechende him oðer stede.
c. 1205. Lay., 25662. Þet lond he weste wide.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 921. We beþ men wide idriue aboute Fram contreie to contreie.
13[?]. K. Alis., 7118 (Laud MS.). His Marshal Tholomeu Þat many Prince wyde kneu.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XIV. 98. I wiste neuere … Man þat with hym spake, as wyde as I haue passed!
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VI. 399. He … sprad þe endes of his kyngdom wydder þan dede his fader.
c. 1400. Parce Michi, 183, in 26 Pol. Poems, 148. In salt see I sayled well wyde.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 45/16. Quhair ance it fixis the rute it spredis the selfe sa braid and wyde, that [etc.].
1670. Milton, Hist. Eng., VI. 247. Thence horsing thir Foot, diffus’d far wider thir outragious incursions.
1726–46. Thomson, Winter, 801. There … Wide roams the Russian exile.
1740. Akenside, Ode, On Winter-Solstice, v. Each hov’ring tempest … Which now wide threat’ning loads the sky.
1831. Wordsw., Yarrow Revisited, 9. Grave thoughts ruled wide on that sweet day.
1889. Swinburne, Poems & Ball., Ser. III. Jacobite’s Exile, xiv. On Keilder-side the wind blaws wide.
b. in phr. far and wide (rarely wide and far); † wide and side (see SIDE adv.1 1).
a. 900. O. E. Martyrol., 10 June, 94. He … ferde … feorr ond wide ʓeond middanʓeard.
c. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., III. x. Wæron þas wundor feorr & wide ʓemæred.
a. 1000. Andreas, 1637. Þa ʓesamnodon … weras … wide & side.
c. 1200–. [see SIDE adv.1 1].
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 710 (Jesus MS.). Þu axest me … [I]f ich con eny oþer dede Bute syngen in sume tyde & bringe blisse veor & wyde.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 1256. Fro ðe riche flod eufrate, Wid and fer to ðe rede se.
c. 1400. St. Alexius, 161 (Cotton MS.). Hys Fader send bothe fer and vyde Messengers on euery syde.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 196 b. They distroye the countrie with fyre farre & wyde.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. iv. 91. That word, broad,… added to the Goose, proues thee farre aud wide, a broad Goose.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 133. Thir Legions … Scout farr and wide into the Realm of night.
1761. Gray, Fatal Sisters, 60. Far and wide the notes prolong.
1813. Scott, Rokeby, V. x. Their vassals wander wide and far [: war].
1828. Southey, Ess. (1832), II. 434. There are holy wells at which multitudes annually assemble, coming from far and wide.
1862. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, xix. Though they scoured the country far and wide.
c. Coal-mining. (See WIDE a. 2 b.)
1904. Times, 23 May, 7/6. Payment was by tonnage raised when working ‘wide’—i.e., on the face of the seam.
2. With a large space or spaces between; at a wide interval or intervals; far apart or asunder; in quot. 1481, with ‘wide’ or long steps. (Cf. 4.)
a. 1000. Wife’s Compl., 13. Þæt hy todælden unc þæt wit ʓewidost in woruldrice lifdon.
a. 1122. O. E. Chron. (Laud), an. 1012. Þa to ferde se here wide swa he ær ʓegaderod wæs.
a. 1240. Ureisun, in O. E. Hom., I. 201. Hwi ne worpe ich me bi-tweonen þeo ilke ermes so swiðe wide to-spredde and i-opened?
1481. Caxton, Reynard, xxxix. (Arb.), 105. The wulf stode wyder than reynard dyde and ofte ouertoke hym.
1684. Burnet, trans. More’s Utopia, II. 68. Where the Towns lie wider, they have much more Ground.
1727. A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., I. xii. 136. The Churches being built wide from one another.
1820. Keats, Lamia, II. 178. A sacred tripod … Whose slender feet wide-swerv’d upon the soft … carpets.
1861. Reade, Cloister & H., i. But when Elias whispered ‘Sit wider!’ says she, ‘Ay! the table will soon be too big for the children.’
1885. Manch. Exam., 22 June, 5/3. Their fields of activity are so wide apart.
b. Of a horse: With the legs apart: opp. to NEAR adv.2 11.
1680. Lond. Gaz., No. 1557/4. A Bright Bay Gelding … Walks and Gallops wide behind.
1737. Bracken, Farriery Impr. (1757), II. 40. A Horse that goes wide before, and near behind. Ibid., 63. He should stand pretty wide behind, and near before.
c. Loosely asunder; so as not to remain close or in contact.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 567. The sportive wind blows wide Their flutt’ring rags, and shows a tawny skin.
1819. Shelley, Cyclops, 66. Shaking wide thy yellow hair.
1833. Tennyson, Lady of Shalott, III. v. Out flew the web and floated wide.
3. With a wide or broad opening; esp. with open vb. or adj. = fully; to the full extent; with fling, fly, set, etc. (in ref. to a door, gate, or the like) = wide open (coinciding with the predicative use of WIDE a. 7).
With wide open cf. Du. wijd open, G. weit offen, ON. víðopnir name of the hall of Hel.
c. 1000. Ags. Ps. (Th.), cxviii[i]. 131. Muð ic ontynde minne wide.
c. 1220. Bestiary, 506. Ðanne him hungreð he gapeð wide.
a. 1400–50. Wars Alex., 2142. Werpis þam vp … & wyde open settis.
c. 1400. Siege Jerus. (E.E.T.S.), 22/389. A dragoun … Wyde gapande,… gomes to swelwe.
c. 1450. Cursor M., 18125 (Laud MS.). Opyn your yates ye prynces wyde.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. lxxx[i]. 10. Open thy mouth wyde, & I shal fyll it.
1610. Shaks., Temp., II. i. 214. This is a strange repose, to be asleepe With eyes wide open.
1718. Pope, Iliad, XV. 813. The Scene wide-opening to the Blaze of Light.
1727–46. Thomson, Summer, 1145. Wide-rent, the clouds Pour a whole flood.
1798. Coleridge, Anc. Mar., I. ii. The Bridegroom’s doors are opened wide.
1824. Byron, Juan, XVI. cxvii. The door flew wide.
1854. Patmore, Angel in Ho., Betrothal, 18. The windows, all wide open thrown.
1895. Rider Haggard, Heart of World, xvi. The doors were flung wide.
1909. Stacpoole, Pools of Silence, xix. [Elephants] with trunks swung up, ears spread wide.
† b. Wide open (of a person): Stretched at full length, esp. on the back. Obs.
13[?]. Northern Passion (1913), I. 187/1604. A token ihesu … And leiden him wid opene on þe rod.
a. 1440. Sir Degrev., 335. He laf slawe … Forty score … Wyd opene one here bake.
14[?]. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 607/43. Resupinus, wyde ope.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 254. He thus lyenge wyde open, & they goynge ouer hym & bestrydynge hym.
1551. T. Wilson, Logic, D vj b. Whan a mans body is in any wyse placed, as to lie a syde, to stande vpright, to sitte, to lenne, to lye grouelyng, to lye wyde open.
4. At (to, from) a (great, or specified) distance; far, far away, far off; (so far) away or off. Now only dial.
Beowulf, 1588. Hra wide sprong.
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 288. Ich wende from heom wide.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 5. White rokkes aboute þe clyues of þe see þat were i-seie wide [L. a longe apparentibus].
1572. Satir. Poems Reform., xxxi. 176. Wandering wyde fra this countrie Amang all vther Natiounis.
1599. Spenser, F. Q., I. i. 34. A little wyde There was an holy Chappell edifyde.
1623. J. Taylor (Water P.), New Discov., B 1. A Towne call’a Goreing, stood neare two miles wide.
1690. Temple, Misc., II. ii. 57. The Chineses: a People, whose way of thinking, seems to lie as wide of ours in Europe as their Country does.
1693. Plot, in Miscell., Cur. Subj. (1714), 44. His Ships … lying above a Mile and half wide off the Town of Sandwich.
1756. Washington, Lett., Writ. 1889. I. 391. Fort Cumberland lying … wide of all other forts.
1857. Hawthorne, Engl. Note-bks. (1870), II. 197. Not only in this district, but wide away.
1859. Meredith, Juggling Jerry, iv. I was a lad not wide from here.
5. At a distance to one side; aside from the aim, or from the direct or proper course; so as to miss the mark or the way; astray. Also const. of († from). Cf. WIDE a. 10. a. in physical sense. spec. in Cricket, out of reach of the batsman.
1545. Ascham, Toxoph., I. (Arb.), 101. To shoote wyde and far of the marke. Ibid., 102. Than … those be wiser men, which couete to shoote wyde than those whiche couete to hit the prycke.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. xi. 5. Then bad the knight his Lady … to an hill her selfe with draw aside,… She him obayd, and turnd a little wyde.
1602. Shaks., Ham., II. ii. 494. Pyrrhus at Priain driues, in Rage strikes wide.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, I. xvii. 27. In bowling they must needs throw wide, which know not the green or alley whereon they play.
1687. A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., I. 97. A little wide of the way to the Right Hand, I saw the Church.
1799. E. Du Bois, Piece Fam. Biog., II. 3. The doctor … had escaped by going a little wide of the ass.
1833. Nyren, Yng. Crick. Tutor, 24. A … ball … pitched a little wide of the off stump.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, II. viii. Johnson the young bowler is getting wild, and bowls a ball almost wide to the off.
1859. Lever, Dav. Dunn, xlix. He shot with the pistol, he fenced, he whipped the trout stream…. He only hit the bull’s-eye once in three shots—he fenced wide—a pike carried off his tackle.
1876. Coursing Calendar, 27. Well Park,… raced past Skedaddle for first turn, and went wide.
1899. Rider Haggard, Swallow, xviii. [He] fired at him, but the ball went wide.
b. fig. (or in fig. context); † in early use often = so as to err, mistakenly (cf. WIDE a. 10 b).
1534. More, Comf. agst. Trib., I. 1151/2. Nay Cosyn,… there walke you somewhat wide, for ther you defende your owne righte for your temporal auayle.
1535. Coverdale, Bible, Prol. Many wryters … seldome made mencyon of ye scripture of the Byble: & though they some tyme aleged it, yet was it done … so wyde from ye purpose, that a man maye well perceaue, how that they neuer sawe the oryginall.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 269. Cæsar auouched hym to had dooen ferre wyde.
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. LXVII. ii. Thou their guide Go’st never wide From truth and righteousnes.
1586. A. Day, Engl. Secretorie, I. (1625), 80. You reckon too wide;… you are too much deceived.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, IV. i. 63. Is my Lord well, that he doth speake so wide?
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., 486. If I should fetch it from Gron a Saxon word that signifieth a fenny place, I might perhaps goe wide.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Captain, II. ii. You hurt not me, Your anger flies so wide.
1677. Otway, Titus & Berenice, I. ii. Thou answerst wide of my desire.
1705. trans. Bosman’s Guinea, 242. This carries me wide from my Subject.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 234, ¶ 4. To compare our Practice with their Precepts, and find where it was that we came short, or went wide.
1784. Cowper, Task, II. 810. Vice parries wide Th’ undreaded volley [of rusted arrows] with sword of straw.
6. Comb. with pres. or pa. pples., less commonly with adjs., forming adjs. (unlimited in number), as wide-branching, -circling, -climbing, -consuming, -echoing, -expanding, -extending, -gaping, -ranging, -reaching, -resounding, -rolling, -straddling, -stretching, -wasting, -winding, -yawning; wide-expanded, -extended, -flung, -opened, -stretched; wide-distant, -imperial, -open. See also WIDE-AWAKE, -SPREAD, -SPREADING adjs.; WIDE-WHERE adv.
1708. J. Philips, Cyder, I. 481. Her *wide-branching Arms.
1873. Howells, Chance Acquaintance, ii. (1883), 45. An audacious, wide-branching moustache.
a. 1700. Congreve, Poems, To the King, iii. Wks. 1730, III. 213. Thro’ Seas, Earth, Air, and the *wide circling Sky.
1872. Blackie, Lays Highl., 164. There’s room in God’s wide-circling arm For all that swear by all the creeds.
1887. Moloney, Forestry W. Afr., 301. A *wide-climbing shrub.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., III. 223. Smoke betrays the *wide-consuming fire.
1750. Shenstone, Rural Elegance, 124. Fame’s *wide-echoing trumpet.
1860. Pusey, Min. Proph., 321. A *wide-expanding knowledge of the enlargement of mankind.
1695. Congreve, Mourn. Muse, 178. Lord of these Woods, and *wide extended Plains.
1708. J. Philips, Cyder, II. 588. His wide-extended Wings.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. 375. With numerous, wide-extended branches.
1831. G. P. R. James, Philip Aug., xxxviii. Gazing over the wide-extended view.
1889. F. Cowper, Captain of Wight, 34. The *wide-extending view, over broad pasture and swelling down.
1860. Longf., Wayside Inn, I. K. Olaf, V. ii. The *wide-flung door.
c. 1721. Sheffield (Dk. Buckhm.), Wks. (1753), I. 71. The *wide-gaping gulph.
1728–46. Thomson, Spring, 56. Such themes as these the rural Maro sung To *wide-imperial Rome.
1865. Tylor, Early Hist. Man., ix. 258. The common notion … has strong and *wide-lying evidence in its favour.
1852. Tennyson, in Ld. T., Mem. (1897), I. 357. Looking at me with such apparently earnest, *wide-open eyes.
1877. Black, Green Past., i. 9. They … drew up in front of the wide-open door.
1864. Skeat, trans. Uhland’s Songs, etc., 269. From Heav’n’s *wide-opened portals.
1876. ‘Ouida,’ Winter City, xii. She could only look at him with wide-opened eyes.
1816. Edin. Rev., Sept., 182. This *wide-ranging Intellect was illuminated by the brightest Fancy.
1856. Grote, Greece, II. xciv. XII. 346. The … powerful, and *wide-reaching impression.
1726–46. Thomson, Winter, 996. The *wide-resounding plain.
1805. Montgomery, Ocean, i. Thou *wide-rolling Ocean, all hail!
1605. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iii. IV. Captains, 945. As … the Grass … Fals at the foot of the *wide-straddling Mower.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., II. iv. 82. All *wide-stretched Honors, that pertaine … Vnto the Crowne of France.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., VII. 747. The wide stretcht realm of intellectual woe.
1726–46. Thomson, Winter, 951. *Wide-stretching from these shores…. A huge neglected empire.
1876. Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., lxix. Wide-stretching purposes.
1674. Milton, P. L. (ed. 2), XI. 487. *Wide wasting Pestilence.
1814. Wordsw., Ode, ‘When the soft hand of sleep,’ 145. Wide-wasting Time.
1816. Shelley, There is no work, 28. The *wide-winding caves.
a. 1876. M. Collins, Pen Sketches (1879), II. 231. O’er earth’s wide-winding ways.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. v. 241. His yet *wide-yawning lips. Ibid. (1598), II. ii. IV. 591. Wide-yawning Gulfs.
