Cut A Wide Swath Meaning

(chiefly US, figuratively, idiomatic) To behave in an expansive, flagrantly showy, or pushy manner, especially in public venues; to exert sweeping influence.

Example: 1876, William Swinton, A Condensed School History of the United States, Ivison, Blakeman, and Taylor (New York), p. 277:
  Sherman started from Atlanta in the middle of November. He cut a wide swath of desolation through the South.
1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, At the Earth's Core, ch. 6:
  Swinging his bloody horns from side to side the beast cut a wide swath before him.
2004, "8 bodies pulled from twister-hit Illinois tavern," msnbc, 21 Apr.:
  The twister cut a wide swath of destruction in Utica, a town of 2,000 people about 90 miles southwest of Chicago.
1899, Delight Sweetser Prentiss, One Way Round the World, 2nd ed., Bowen-Merrill, p. 124:
  Girls who like to cut a wide swath ought to come out to China, for they will have enough flattery and attention to turn their heads.
1924, "Method in Kindness," Time, 21 Jan., quoting the Daily News (Manhattan):
  During the two years that he [the Count] cut a wide swath in the city [Berlin] his name was constantly associated with that of some dancer, actress or other woman whose notoriety drew more attention than her talent.
1998, Jeff Goldsmith, "Columbia/HCA: A Failure of Leadership," Health Affairs, vol. 17, no. 2, p. 27:
  The company certainly cut a wide swath in a conservative industry.
2004, Gary Marx, "Venezuelans head to polls in president's recall election," San Diego Union Tribune, 15 Aug.:
  With his signature red beret and class-based rhetoric, president Hugo Chavez has cut a wide swath through this oil-rich but impoverished nation.