wide-open
Americanadjective
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opened to the full extent.
a wide-open window.
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lacking laws or strict enforcement of laws concerning liquor, vice, gambling, etc..
a wide-open town.
adjective
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open to the full extent
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(postpositive) exposed to attack; vulnerable
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uncertain as to outcome
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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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Unresolved, unsettled, as in The fate of that former colony is still wide open . [Mid-1900s]
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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 .
Etymology
Origin of wide-open
First recorded in 1850–55
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The party’s last wide-open contest, in 2020, drew more than two dozen major contestants.
From Los Angeles Times
Glenn’s raw emotion and her triple axel are her calling cards while trying to stand out in the wide-open women’s field.
From Los Angeles Times
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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
