[absol. use of WIDE a. (OE. wíde did not survive.) Cf. ON. vídd width, widening, víðir the wide sea, the main, f. víðr WIDE a.]
† 1. Width, breadth. Obs.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1646. Couetys, hordan, envie, and pride Has spred þis werld on lenth and wide. Ibid., 1676. A schippe … Seuen score ellen lang and ten, Thrys aght on wyde, on heght fiueten.
† b. On wide: abroad, all around. Obs.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1423. He waytez onwyde, his wenches he byholdes.
2. † a. The open sea. b. A wide, extensive or open space. Now only poet.
[Cf. c. 1000. Ags. Ps. (Th.), xcii[i]. 4. Fram wæterstefnum widra maniʓra; Vulg. a vocibus aquarum multarum.]
c. 1320. Sir Tristr., 1013. Þai seylden in to þe wide.
1833. Tennyson, Two Voices, xl. The waste wide Of that abyss.
3. Cricket. [Short for wide ball, WIDE a. 10 a.] A ball bowled wide of the wicket, counting one against the bowler’s side.
1850. ‘Bat,’ Crick. Man., 46. Rule the [scoring] sheet … with three additional [lines] for wides, byes, and no-balls.
