| / English Dictionary |
WIDENING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of making something wider
Synonyms:
broadening; widening
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("widening" is a kind of...):
change of shape (an action that changes the shape of something)
Antonym:
narrowing (the act of making something narrower)
Derivation:
widen (make wider)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A part of a road that has been widened to allow cars to pass or park
Synonyms:
turnout; widening
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("widening" is a kind of...):
part; portion (something less than the whole of a human artifact)
Holonyms ("widening" is a part of...):
road; route (an open way (generally public) for travel or transportation)
Sense 3
Meaning:
An increase in width
Synonyms:
broadening; widening
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural processes
Hypernyms ("widening" is a kind of...):
growth; increase; increment (a process of becoming larger or longer or more numerous or more important)
Antonym:
narrowing (a decrease in width)
Derivation:
widen (become broader or wider or more extensive)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb widen
Context examples:
Major staggered to his feet, but the blood spouting from his throat reddened the snow in a widening path.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
And so she felt that her outlook was very wide indeed, and that where his conflicted with hers marked his limitations; and she dreamed of helping him to see as she saw, of widening his horizon until it was identified with hers.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
For some miles they still followed the same lonely track, which led them through a dense wood, and then widening out, curved down to an open rolling country, such as they had traversed between Aiguillon and Cahors.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
She and her team found that, individually, the tropical widening effect and OH recycling through reactions with other gases each comprise a relatively small source of OH, but together they essentially replace the OH used up in the breaking down of methane.
(Greenhouse Gas ‘Detergent’ Recycles Itself in Atmosphere, NASA)
This was the being I was helping to transfer to London, where, perhaps, for centuries to come he might, amongst its teeming millions, satiate his lust for blood, and create a new and ever-widening circle of semi-demons to batten on the helpless.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
In dashed Sir Nigel, and out again so swiftly that the eye could not follow the quick play of his blade, but a trickle of blood from the stranger's shoulder, and a rapidly widening red smudge upon his white surcoat, showed where the thrust had taken effect.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The tropics, which span the region of Earth to either side of the equator, have shown some evidence of widening farther north and south of their current range, possibly due to rising temperatures affecting air circulation patterns.
(Greenhouse Gas ‘Detergent’ Recycles Itself in Atmosphere, NASA)
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