[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The state or quality of being broad; breadth.
1. lit. (Now mostly superseded by breadth.)
1388. Wyclif, Deut. xxxiii. 20. Gad is blessid in broodnesse.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, Her., C vij b. And it be dyuidid after the longnes or after the brodenes.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 245. Infynyte … in depnes, heyght, brodnesse & length.
1643. J. Steer, trans. Exp. Chyrurg., xvi. 66. About the broadnesse of the palme of the hand.
1730. Magna Brit., V. 805/1. Bretford … hath its Name from the Broadness of the Ford … over the Avon.
2. fig. Plainness of speech; coarseness, indelicacy.
1685. Dryden, Sylvæ, Pref. (J.). Neither he nor I have us’d the grossest words; but the cleanliest Metaphors we cou’d find, to palliate the broadness of the meaning.
1861. Craik, Hist. Eng. Lit., I. 524 (L.). Broadness and indelicacy of allusion.
