broad

Wide in extent or scope.

Adjective

  1. Wide in extent or scope.
    • three feet broad
    • the broad expanse of ocean
    • Thus Falstaff, in Shakspeare, is a character of the broadest comedy, giving himself unreservedly to the senses, coolly ignoring the Reason, whilst he invokes its name, pretending to patriotism and to parental virtues,...
  2. Extended, in the sense of diffused; open; clear; full.
    • broad and open day - 1720, William Bartlet, a sermon:
    • crushing the minds of its victims in the broad and open day - May 12, 1860, Eliza Watson, Witches and witchcraft (in Once A Week, No. 46.)
  3. Having a large measure of any thing or quality; unlimited; unrestrained.
    • a broad mixture of falsehood - 1693, [John Locke], “§140”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], →OCLC:
  4. Comprehensive; liberal; enlarged.
    • The words in the Constitution are broad enough to include the case. - 1819, D. Daggett, Sturges v. Crowninshield:
    • in a broad, statesmanlike, and masterly way - 1859, Edward Everett, Daniel Webster: An Oration On the Occasion of the Dedication of the Statue of Mr. Webster,:
  5. Plain; evident.
    • a broad hint
  6. General rather than specific.
    • to be in broad agreement
  7. Unsubtle; obvious.
    • Lee: I wrote that line for you. Maeve: A bit broad, if you ask me. - 2018 April 22, “Journey into Night” (39:17 from the start), in Westworld, season 2, episode 1, spoken by Maeve Millay and Lee Sizemore (Thandie Newton...
  8. Free; unrestrained; unconfined.
    • as broad and general as the casing air - c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard,...
  9. Gross; coarse; indelicate.
    • a broad compliment; a broad joke; broad humour
  10. Strongly regional.
    • She still has a broad Scottish accent, despite moving to California 20 years ago.
  11. Velarized, i.e. not palatalized.

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-der.? Proto-Germanic *braidaz Proto-West Germanic *braid Old English brād Middle English brod English broad From Middle English brood, brode, from Old English brād (“broad, flat, open, extended, spacious, wide, ample, copious”), from Proto-West Germanic *braid, from Proto-Germanic *braidaz (“broad, wide”), of uncertain origin. Cognates Cognate with Yola brode (“broad”), North Frisian bread, breeđ, briad, briid, briidj (“wide”), Saterland Frisian and West Frisian breed (“broad, wide”), Bavarian brad, broad (“broad, wide”), Central Franconian and Luxembourgish breet (“broad, wide”), Dutch breed (“broad, wide”), German breit (“broad, wide”), Vilamovian braat (“broad, wide”), Yiddish ברייט (breyt, “broad, wide”), Danish and Swedish bred (“broad, wide”), Faroese and Icelandic breiður (“broad, wide”), Norwegian Bokmål bred, brei (“broad, wide”),...

Forms

broader broadest

Antonyms

thin narrow skinny all-encompassing slender

Related

Bradford Bradley Bradshaw

Derived

abroad as broad as long breadth broadacre broad across the beam broad and shallow broad antigen broad arrow broad arrowhead broad awake broadaxe broadband broad-based broad-beamed broad bean broadbill broad-billed flycatcher broad-billed moa broad-billed parrot broad-billed sandpiper broadbrim broadbrimmed Broad Brook broad-brush

Noun UK

  1. A shallow lake, one of a number of bodies of water in eastern Norfolk and Suffolk.
  2. A lathe tool for turning down the insides and bottoms of cylinders.
  3. A British gold coin worth 20 shillings, issued by the Commonwealth of England in 1656.
  4. A kind of floodlight.
    • […] fresnel spotlights, old-type broads, sky-pans, cone-lights, etc. - 1974, The Video Handbook, page 71:
    • Some broads have barn doors (see page 115) to block gross light spill into other set areas; others have even an adjustable beam, […] - 1976, Herbert Zettl, Television Production Handbook, volume 10, page 105:
    • Light bounced from large white surfaces (e.g., matte reflector boards, or a white ceiling). Floodlights include scoops, broads, floodlight, banks, internally reflected units, strip lights, and cyclorama lights. - 2015,...
  5. A playing card.
    • I reckon as old Sol couldn't ha' lived without a pack of broads. If he couldn't find anybody to play with him, he'd play alone, […] - 1927, Arthur Morris Binstead, The works of A. M. Binstead, volume 2, page 118:

Forms

broads

Derived

Broadland broadsman Oulton Broad

Noun US, dated

  1. A prostitute, a woman of loose morals.
    • “Now we go up Bowery Street look at broads. Me pay.” - 1925, John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, 1st section, page 94:

    Synonyms: abandons alley cat almah bangtail Bankside lady bargirl bat beotch blouze blowen blowsabella brass nail brasser brass broad business girl calico queen callet cat chippy chromo coaster cockatrice cocotte

  2. A woman or girl.
    • They always hook you in the end, them broads. This whole trouble is on account of a dame reads a book. - 1950, Albert Mannheimer, Born Yesterday, spoken by Harry Brock:
    • Hey, man, Truck, you got to understand, she's a no class broad and you a gross son of a bitch. Naturally, she don't like you. - 1974, Oscar Williams, Michael Allin, Truck Turner, spoken by Jerry:
    • The grunts resumed their bitching at the heat, the hills, and the lack of cold beer and hot broads. - 1984, Charles Robert Anderson, The Grunts, Berkley Books, →ISBN, page 157:

    Synonyms: babe baggage bim bint bird bitch blone broad chick covess dame donna feme femme femoid frau frow gal gash gentlelady ginch hen ho huwoman

Origin

Early 20th century, apparent phono-semantic matching of German Braut (“bride”, also “girlfriend”, and more generally “broad, young woman”).

Forms

broads

Derived

old broad