Forms: see WIDE a.; also (with normal shortening of the stem-vowel) 6–7 widnesse, 7 (dial.) widness. [OE. wídnes, f. WIDE a. + -NESS.] The quality or state of being wide, in various senses: and derived uses. Now generally replaced by WIDTH.
1. Large extension, vastness, spaciousness.
In late use only as transf. from 3.
a. 1225. St. Marher., 17. Þe widnesse of þe world.
c. 1320. Cast. Love (ed. Halliw.), 1764. Of hevyn he may i-se þe wydnes, The feyreshepe & þe heynes.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIV. lv. (1495), F iij. By cause of wydnesse therof it [sc. a cave] is an able place to abyde in.
1596. Spenser, State Irel., 93. Though otherwise the widenes of the mountaine pasturage doe recompence the badnes of the soyle.
1740. Cibber, Apol. (1756), I. 243. The immoderate wideness of their house.
1862. [see 5].
1883. American, VII. 55. He will probably … muse on the wideness of this world.
† 2. Extent from side to side, transverse measurement (of any amount); diameter, breadth; occas. extent of opening, distance apart. Obs. exc. dial. (replaced by WIDTH 1).
c. 1000. in Anglia, XI. 9/27. Þæs temples længc wæs syxtiʓ fæðma, & seo widnes wæs twentiʓ fæþma, & his heahnys wæs þrityʓ fæþma.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., II. 578. Þæt tempel wæs … on widnysse twentiʓ fæðma.
1340. Hampole, Pr. Consc., 7576. Þat clerkes calles cristallyne, Þat next oboven þe sterned heven es, And es mare þan þat of wydenes.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., II. 62. Þei maken þer abitis myche boþe in widnesse and sidnesse.
1463. Bury Wills (Camden), 39. The seid dore to be maad as large of wydnesse as may be.
1535. Coverdale, Ezek. xl. 11. He measured the wydenesse of the dore: which was x cubites, & the heyth of the dore xiij cubites.
1551. Recorde, Pathw. Knowl., I. v. Open your compasse to the wydenes of those ij. new prickes.
1618. M. Baret, Hippon., 20. His legges must carry such an equi-distance in widenesse that they may describe two parallel lines in their motions.
1667. Phil. Trans., II. 604. To every Vowel belongs a peculiar dimension of Wideness in the Mouth.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., V. xii. 59. The difference … is the just wideness of the Chamber.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. vii. 309/1. They are of severall widnesses.
1726. Swift, Gulliver, III. i. A small creek about three times the wideness of my canoe.
1748. Anson’s Voy., III. viii. 379. By the great wideness of his ports he could traverse almost all his guns upon the enemy.
1756. Mrs. Calderwood, in Coltness Collect. (Maitland Club), 132. A long-bodied narrow cart, that just holds two to sit in the wideness.
1765. A. Dickson, Treat. Agric. (ed. 2), 195. The furrow that the plough makes, will be, below, equal in wideness to B C, and, above, to N D.
† b. Size or amount generally (of spatial measurement, or of time). Obs. rare.
1657. W. Rand, trans. Gassendi’s Life Peiresc, I. 134. The Romans … ordained that their Congius (or Gallon) should be in widnesse half a Cubick foot.
1699. Bentley, Phal., 211. It still leaves his Age undetermined, within the wideness of xxxx years.
3. Great extent from side to side; large transverse measurement: opp. to narrowness.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 48 b. Therfore was erected an Arche of widnes at the tournelles besyde the strete.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 46. Quhais Wydnes of his banes and gretnes teiches that he was xiiii. fute lang.
1622. Callis, Stat. Sewers (1647), 82. Wideness and shallowness of the … Streams.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 10 July 1656. The stair-case of extraordinary widnesse.
1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., III. xxxv. 436. The wideness or narrowness of the pump.
1828. Craven Gloss, Widness, width.
1841. Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., IV. 195/1. The wideness of their mouths gives them a firm seat in the gallery.
4. In quasi-concrete uses. a. (from 1.) A wide space or region; (large) extent, (vast) expanse: = WIDTH 3.
1535. Coverdale, Isa. viii. 8. He shal fyl also the wydenesse of thy londe with his brode wynges.
1585. Fetherstone, trans. Calvin on Acts xvi. 6. In that confused widenesse God beckened vnto him … how far he would haue him goe, or whither.
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. XCVI. vi. Sea and all thy widenesse yieldeth.
1681. Whole Duty of Nations, 14. A Nation is a part of Mankind canton’d … from the whole world, and the wideness of that.
1844. Kinglake, Eöthen, xvii. To stand thus alone in the wideness of Asia.
1849. Lytton, K. Arthur, XI. cxxxii. Lost in the wideness of the weltering Sea.
1918. A. Menzies, Study of Calvin, 88. To get a view far out over the ‘wideness of the sea.’
† b. (from 2 or 3.) Opening, aperture. Obs.
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 213/2. Hypothyrum,… the wide opening or open widenes of the doore. Ibid., 443/1. Vulneris os,… the mouth, opening, or widenesse of a wound.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., xiii. 215. To close the wideness of a wound.
5. fig. Largeness of range, extensiveness; relation to a great number of persons, things, cases, etc.; wide reach or applicability. In quot. 1551, Extent of meaning, ‘extension.’
1551. T. Wilson, Logike, E iij b. The diuision … ought to be made with twoo contrary differences, fully containyng in them self the whole cumpasse or widenes of the generall worde.
1649. E. Reynolds, Hosea, ii. 87. The puritie, spiritualnesse, and widenesse of that Law which they have sworne unto.
c. 1801. J. Foster, in Life & Corr. (1846), I. 225. A wideness of compass without solidity and exactness.
1862. Faber, Hymn, ‘Souls of men! why will ye scatter,’ iv. There’s a wideness in God’s mercy, Like the wideness of the sea.
1865. Kingsley, Herew., xii. The merest varnish of Roman culture had given… wideness of range to their thoughts.
