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Broad

//bɹɔːd// adj, name, noun, slang

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Wide in extent or scope.

    "three feet broad"

  2. 2
    Extended, in the sense of diffused; open; clear; full.

    "broad and open day"

  3. 3
    Having a large measure of any thing or quality; unlimited; unrestrained.

    "a broad mixture of falsehood"

  4. 4
    Comprehensive; liberal; enlarged.

    "The words in the Constitution are broad enough to include the case."

  5. 5
    Plain; evident.

    "a broad hint"

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  1. 6
    General rather than specific.

    "to be in broad agreement"

  2. 7
    Unsubtle; obvious.

    "Lee: I wrote that line for you. Maeve: A bit broad, if you ask me."

  3. 8
    Free; unrestrained; unconfined.

    "as broad and general as the casing air"

  4. 9
    Gross; coarse; indelicate. dated

    "a broad compliment; a broad joke; broad humour"

  5. 10
    Strongly regional.

    "She still has a broad Scottish accent, despite moving to California 20 years ago."

  6. 11
    Velarized, i.e. not palatalized.
Adjective
  1. 1
    showing or characterized by broad-mindedness wordnet
  2. 2
    lacking subtlety; obvious wordnet
  3. 3
    broad in scope or content wordnet
  4. 4
    not detailed or specific wordnet
  5. 5
    being at a peak or culminating point wordnet
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  1. 6
    (of speech) heavily and noticeably regional wordnet
  2. 7
    very large in expanse or scope wordnet
  3. 8
    having great (or a certain) extent from one side to the other wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.
Noun
  1. 1
    A shallow lake, one of a number of bodies of water in eastern Norfolk and Suffolk. UK
  2. 2
    A prostitute, a woman of loose morals. US, dated

    "“Now we go up Bowery Street look at broads. Me pay.”"

  3. 3
    slang term for a woman wordnet
  4. 4
    A lathe tool for turning down the insides and bottoms of cylinders.
  5. 5
    A woman or girl. US, colloquial, dated, slang, sometimes

    "They always hook you in the end, them broads. This whole trouble is on account of a dame reads a book."

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  1. 6
    A British gold coin worth 20 shillings, issued by the Commonwealth of England in 1656. UK, historical
  2. 7
    A kind of floodlight.

    "[…] fresnel spotlights, old-type broads, sky-pans, cone-lights, etc."

  3. 8
    A playing card. archaic, slang

    "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, […]"

Etymology

Etymology 1

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”), Norwegian Nynorsk brei, breid (“broad, wide”), Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌸𐍃 (braiþs, “broad, wide”).

Etymology 2

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”), Norwegian Nynorsk brei, breid (“broad, wide”), Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌸𐍃 (braiþs, “broad, wide”).

Etymology 3

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

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