To make or become broad; an archaic or dialectal term meaning to widen or expand (rarely used in modern English).
From Old English 'brædan' meaning to broaden, related to 'broad.' This formation with '-en' suffix (like darken, broaden) was common in Middle and Early Modern English but has mostly fallen out of use.
English used to be much more flexible about adding '-en' to adjectives to make verbs—you could 'redden,' 'sadden,' or 'browden'—but we've simplified our language, keeping only the most useful ones.
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