widen

present singular third person widens · participle present widening · participle past widened · past widened

1. intransitiveTo become wide or wider.

   His eyes widened as her negligee fell to the floor.

2. transitiveTo make wide or wider.

   The widening works include the rebuilding of the skew bridge near Northwood to take four tracks, and to enable the Rickmansworth Road to be widened to 60 ft.; […].

   1959 November 28, “Notes and News: Harrow-Rickmansworth Widening”, in Railway Magazine, page 802

   1 more example

   But he still saw his side produce a rousing display which owed much to their lauded prowess from set-pieces, despite Uefa regulations meaning the pitch had to be widened and, in the process, the run-up area for Delap's long throws reduced.

   2011 September 29, Tom Rostance, “Stoke 2 - 1 Besiktas”, in BBC Sport

3. transitiveTo let out clothes to a larger size.

   She widened his trousers for him.

4. transitiveTo broaden or extend in scope or range.

   The police widened their enquiries.

   2 more examples

   While the primary focus of the Sexual Orientation Committee had been to lobby for gay rights legislation, the new Task Force hopes to widen its activities. The Task Force ― in addition to lobbying — hopes to function as an "umbrella organization," facilitating communication between the state's many gay groups.

   1976 December 18, “Connecticut Task”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 25, page 2

   Correspondent Gerardo Arreola interviewed Castro Espín for the Jan. 9, 2006, issue of La Jornada about the move to widen rights for transsexuals.

   2007 August 6, Leslie Feinberg, “Cuba's CENESEX proposes ground-breaking transsexual rights”, in Workers World

5. transitivecomputingTo convert to a data type that can hold a larger number of distinct values.

   to widen a short variable to an int variable

   Antonyms: narrow

plural Widens

1. A surname from Swedish.