[f. WIDE a. + -EN5.]
† 1. trans. To open wide, set wide open. (Cf. WIDE a. 7.) Obs. rare.
1607. Shaks., Cor., I. iv. 44. So, now the gates are ope:… ’Tis for the followers Fortune widens them, Not for the flyers.
1627. Drayton, Agincourt, cxi. The gates thus widen’d … Their ample entrance to the English gaue.
2. To make wide or wider: = BROADEN 2. a. lit. To increase the width or spatial extent of.
1669. Staynred, Fortif., 8. You may … widen the Necks of the Gorges.
1694. trans. Marten’s Voy. Spitzbergen, in Acc. Sev. Late Voy., II. 127. A piece of Board, whereon the Dyers widen or stretch their Stockins.
1785. J. Phillips, Treat. Inland Nav., 45. I would cleanse, widen, and deepen the river Stort.
1818. [S. Weston], La Scava, 3. Under the pavement … we found foundations of a house that had been probably thrown down to widen the road.
1856. Kane, Arctic Expl., II. xiv. 148. These split-off lines of ice were evidently in motion … widening their fissures.
1919. Engl. Rev., July, 26. An outsweep of the left flanking hedge, widening the path for a few feet.
b. fig. To increase the magnitude or range of; to extend.
1670. Stillingfl., Serm. Matt. xxi. 43, Wks. 1710, I. 119. I speak not these things to widen our differences, or increase our animosities.
1675. Essex Papers (Camden, 1913), 22. Parliament is like to sitt longer … for ye differences between ye houses are so widened.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1768), III. 45. Ought I to widen my error by obstinacy and resentment?
1812. Landor, Ct. Julian, I. i. To … Widen the solitude of lonely sighs.
1842. Tennyson, Locksley Hall, 138. The thoughts of men are widen’d with the process of the suns.
1870. Rock, Text. Fabr., iv. (1876), 33. The word diaper became widened in its meaning.
1885. Manch. Exam., 13 July, 5/5. The society is widening its scheme of operations.
3. intr. To become wide or wider: = BROADEN v. 1. a. lit.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 118, ¶ 10. An Extinguisher, with a little Knob at the upper End, and widening downward.
1802. Playfair, Illustr. Hutton. The., 404. Of a very uniform breadth except that at each end it widens considerably.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xii. (1856), 89. The aperture, at first a mere crack, widened to a couple of feet.
1877. Huxley, Physiogr., xi. 174. The current widens, and its speed is slackened.
1920. Sat. Westm. Gaz., 22 May, 9/1. The streamlet widens into a pond.
b. fig.
1650. E. Williams, Virgo Triumphans, B 2 b. A reall quarrell widening.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., II. xi. § 11. That … difference [between brutes and men] … which at last widens to so vast a distance.
1760–2. Goldsm., Cit. W., xcii. His wishes now rise one step above his station;… his prospects widen as he ascends.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xliii. Florence … observed the estrangement between her father and Edith, and saw it widen more and more.
1866. J. Martineau, Ess., I. 169. These questions deepen and widen under our hand.
Hence Widened ppl. a., Widening vbl. sb. (also concr.) and ppl. a.; also Widener, one who or that which widens; an apparatus for widening something, spec. a drill constructed to bore a hole of greater diameter than its own.
1759. R. Smith, Harmonics (ed. 2), 181. If any slider be drawn back again, which the *widened holes will permit.
1892. Daily News, 6 April, 7/3. A great increase in production may be looked for within a year or so, accompanied by good dividends and a widened market for the shares.
1901. Westm. Gaz., 7 Oct., 5/1. When we have our widened line system completed, it will be possible … to run express electric trains to and from Brighton.
1683. Snape, Anat. Horse, IV. xiv. (1686), 172. The *Wideners or Dilaters of the Chest [sc. muscles].
1908. Daily Chron., 21 Oct., 7/5. Then … it [sc. the glove] is ready for the dresser, who puts it into shape by means of sticks and wideners.
1569. in Surrey & Kent Sewers Comm. (1909), 22. To the *wydnynge of the Mouth of the brydge there one foote and a halfe.
1659. Burton’s Diary (1828), IV. 281. If your body politic be mishapen at the making, the widening or straightening of it will not help it.
1677. Gilpin, Demonol. (1867), 149. The widening of their capacities.
1782. A. Monro, Compar. Anat. (ed. 3), 22. Respiration being chiefly performed … by the widening of the chest.
1884. Manch. Exam., 29 Sept., 5/3. The deepening, widening, and straightening of the rivers Mersey and Irwell.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 562. We … pass by a widening in the path.
1791. Mackintosh, Vind. Gallicæ, Wks. 1846, III. 93. *Widening prospects of happiness.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, x. 169. Making a series of widening rings on the surface [of the water].
1884. Church, Bacon, ix. 212. New ideas and widening thoughts.
1913. W. M. Ramsay, Teaching of Paul, xxiii. 133. The widening gap that intervenes.
