The Collaborative Dictionary

Widen \Wid"en\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Widened; p. pr. & vb. n. Widening.] To make wide or wider; to extend in breadth; to increase the width of; as, to widen a field; to widen a breach; to widen a stocking. [1913 Webster]

Word Net

widening

1 an increase in width [syn: broadening] [ant: narrowing]

2 a part of a road that has been widened to allow cars to pass or park [syn: turnout]

3 the act of making something wider [syn: broadening] [ant: narrowing]

Moby Thesaurus

access, accession, accretion, accrual, accruement, accumulation, addition, adjunct, advance, aggrandizement, ampliation, amplification, appreciation, ascent, augmentation, ballooning, bloating, boom, boost, broadening, buildup, crescendo, deployment, development, dispersion, edema, elevation, enlargement, expansion, extension, fanning out, flare, flood, gain, greatening, growth, gush, hike, hiking, increase, increment, inflation, jump, leap, magnification, mounting, multiplication, productiveness, proliferation, raise, raising, rise, snowballing, splay, spread, spreading, surge, swelling, tumescence, up, upping, upsurge, upswing, uptrend, upturn, waxing

English

Pronunciation

• /ˈwaɪdənɪŋ/

Adjective

1. Of things that are growing wider.
2. Of things that are separate, with increasing separation.

   The widening gap between rich and poor creates social problems.

Quotations

• 1920 — William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming

  Turning and turning in the widening gyreThe falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Noun

1. The action of the verb widen.

Quotations

• 1887 — Robert Louis Stevenson, The Merry Men, Olalla

  She looked up sleepily and asked me what it was, and with the very words I thought she drew in her breath with a widening of the nostrils and seemed to come suddenly and fully alive.

Verb

widening

1. present participle of widen