wide-open

[ wahyd-oh-puhn ]
See synonyms for wide-open on Thesaurus.com
adjective
  1. opened to the full extent: a wide-open window.

  2. lacking laws or strict enforcement of laws concerning liquor, vice, gambling, etc.: a wide-open town.

Origin of wide-open

1
First recorded in 1850–55

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use wide-open in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for wide-open

wide-open

adjective(wide open when postpositive)
  1. open to the full extent

  2. (postpositive) exposed to attack; vulnerable

  1. uncertain as to outcome

  2. US informal (of a town or city) lax in the enforcement of certain laws, esp those relating to the sale and consumption of alcohol, gambling, the control of vice, etc

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with wide-open

wide-open

Unresolved, unsettled, as in The fate of that former colony is still wide open. [Mid-1900s]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.