Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive & intransitive verb To make or become wide or wider.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Widely; wide.
  • To make wide or wider; extend in breadth; expand: as, to widen a street.
  • To throw open.
  • In knitting, to make larger by increasing the number of stitches: opposed to narrow.
  • To grow wide or wider; enlarge; extend itself; expand; broaden.
  • In knitting, to increase the number of stitches: as, to widen at the third row.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To make wide or wider; to extend in breadth; to increase the width of
  • intransitive verb To grow wide or wider; to enlarge; to spread; to extend.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive To become wide or wider.
  • verb transitive To make wide or wider.
  • verb transitive To let out clothes to a larger size.
  • verb transitive To broaden or extend in scope or range.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb extend in scope or range or area
  • verb make (clothes) larger
  • verb make wider
  • verb become broader or wider or more extensive

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word widen.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.