wide-open

American  

[wahyd-oh-puhn] / ˈwaɪdˈoʊ pən /

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.

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wide-open British  

adjective

1. open to the full extent

2. (postpositive) exposed to attack; vulnerable

3. uncertain as to outcome

4. 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

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wide open Idioms  

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

2. Unprotected or vulnerable, as in That remark about immigrants left him wide open to hostile criticism . This expression originated in boxing, where it signifies being off one's guard and open to an opponent's punches. It began to be used more broadly about 1940. Also see leave open .

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Etymology

Origin of wide-open

First recorded in 1850–55

Example Sentences

Kaori Sakamoto will be looking to avoid another Olympics upset as the Japanese figure skating star takes to the ice in the wide-open women's singles starting Tuesday.

From Barron's

But between the creature's rapidly flapping wings and wide-open mouth, he couldn't figure out how to grab it.

From Literature

Somewhere deep in the limbic system, a synapse fires like a flare, tracing the old circuitry of migration and memory — that annual pull toward the wide-open deserts of the American Southwest.

From Los Angeles Times

From where I’m standing, all I can see is ocean and pavement and wide-open gray sky.

From Literature

Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘One Battle After Another’ leads a wide-open field as the Golden Globes offer an early read on an unsettled Oscar season.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• lawless
• ungoverned