WIDE. adj. A term employed to denote relative extent in certain circumstances. Opposed to narrow and strait.
1. This term is in its proper sense applied only to denote the space contained within any body closed all round on every side; as a house, gate, &c.: and differs from broad in this, that it never relates to the superficies of solid objects, but is employed to express the capaciousness of any body which containeth vacant space; nor can capaciousness in this sense be expressed by any other word but wide.
VOL. VII. Part I.
2. As many bodies may be considered either with Dictionary. respect to the capaciousness or superficial extent; in all these cases, either the term broad or wide may be used; as a broad or wide street or ditch, &c. but with a greater or less degree of propriety, according to the circumstances of the object, or the idea we wish to convey. In a street where the houses are low and the boundaries open, or in a ditch of small depth and large superficies, as this largeness of superficies bears the principal proportion, broad would be more proper; but if the houses are of great height, or the ditch of great depth, and capaciousness is the principal property that affects the mind, we would naturally say a wide street or ditch; and the same may be said of all similar cases. But there are some cases in which both these terms are applied, with a greater difference of meaning; thus we say a broad or wide gate: But as the gate is employed to denote either the aperture in the wall, or the matter which closes that aperture, these terms are each of them used to denote that particular quality to which they are generally applied: and as the opening itself can never be considered as a superficies, the term wide, in this case, denotes the distance between the sides of the aperture; while, on the contrary, broad denotes the extent of matter fitted to close that aperture; nor can these two terms in any case be substituted for one another.
3. As a figurative expression, it is used as a cant phrase for a mistake: as, you are wide of the mark; that is, not near the truth.