Literary notes about Wide (AI summary)
The word “wide” in literature serves as a flexible descriptor that enriches both physical descriptions and abstract ideas. In many texts, it is used to denote precise physical dimensions—for instance, an inch-wide thumb [1], a main avenue spanning eight to ten feet [2], and even a dike measuring 134 feet wide [3]. Simultaneously, “wide” transcends mere measurements to evoke vast expanses and open spaces, such as Troy’s towering spread [4, 5], the wide estuary of the Rio de la Plata [6], or the notion of a “wide world” full of possibility [7, 8]. Moreover, it imbues characters and scenes with a sense of openness or intensity, as seen in descriptions of “wide-open” eyes filled with wonder or dismay [9, 10, 11] and the imagery of news or influence spreading far and wide [12, 13]. In this way, “wide” functions as both a literal and figurative tool, enhancing the reader’s sense of scale, emotion, and the boundlessness of both the physical and metaphorical landscapes depicted in literature.
- A man's thumb is an inch wide.
— from Boy Scouts Handbook by Boy Scouts of America - This main avenue was not more than eight or ten feet wide.
— from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Complete by Mark Twain - The dike is 134 feet wide, and consists of a rock which is a compound of feldspar and augite (dolerite of some authors).
— from The Fables of Aesop by Aesop - 'tis given thee to destroy The lofty towers of wide-extended Troy.
— from The Iliad by Homer - Declare, e'en now 'tis given him to destroy The lofty towers of wide-extended Troy.
— from The Iliad by Homer - The Nautilus passed the wide estuary formed by the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, and on April 4 we lay abreast of Uruguay, albeit fifty miles out.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne - Come along, and let us go forth into the wide world together.’
— from The Red Fairy Book - Maybe I'll play—but Rosalind was the only girl in the wide world that could have held me.”
— from This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald - Kutúzov looked at him with eyes wide open with dismay and then took off his cap and crossed himself: “May the kingdom of Heaven be his!
— from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy - Her eyes remained very wide open, and she lay very still, confirmed in her instinctive conviction that things don’t bear looking into very much.
— from The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale by Joseph Conrad - Varvara Petrovna looked at her in silence, with wide-open eyes, listening with wonder.
— from The possessed : by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The news of our fire travelled far and wide.
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie - But the seed was sown far and wide, now bearing fruit.
— from History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I
