wideness
(ˈwaɪdnɪs)
Forms: see wide a.; also (with normal shortening of the stem-vowel) 6–7 widnesse, 7 (9 dial.) widness.
[OE. w{iacu}dnes, 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 syxtiᵹ fæðma, & seo widnes wæs twentiᵹ fæþma, & his heahnys wæs þrityᵹ fæþma. c 1000 ælfric Hom. II. 578 Þæt tempel wæs..on widnysse twentiᵹ 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 me 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 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 M. 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 tr. 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 tr. 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 C. Fetherstone tr. 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 Eothen 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..a wideness of range to their thoughts. |