wide-open
[wahyd-oh-puh n]
- opened to the full extent: a wide-open window.
- lacking laws or strict enforcement of laws concerning liquor, vice, gambling, etc.: a wide-open town.
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Origin of wide-open
First recorded in 1850–55
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for wide-open
Contemporary Examples
Can you make it in a wide-open market in which consumers have loads of options?
The ball then swung to a wide-open Chris Bosh for a corner three that gave Miami the lead for good.
The wide-open Nebraskan landscape is endowed with a raw grace.
She cites a Baltimore Sun editorial about this still being a “wide-open race.”
In the wide-open expanses of the American West, where livestock outnumber Democrats, William Bryk has found a home.
Brooklyn’s Lazy Carpetbagger Sets His Sights on an Alaska Senate SeatDavid Freedlander
December 4, 2013
Historical Examples
His father lay on the bed with staring, wide-open eyes,—he was dead.
Rico and WiseliJohanna Spyri
They looked at her with wide-open eyes and then went back to the old word.
A Singer from the SeaAmelia Edith Huddleston Barr
"Why, of course I am," she exclaimed, with wide-open surprise.
They were of the wide-open kind, and looked at one frankly in every mood.
'Twixt Land & SeaJoseph Conrad
His face was pale, and there was a startled, wide-open look in his eyes that Westray did not like.
The Nebuly CoatJohn Meade Falkner
wide-open
- open to the full extent
- (postpositive) exposed to attack; vulnerable
- uncertain as to outcome
- 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
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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