Why can a hole be big, but not wide?

So I was checking some machine shop parts the other day with a .250 pin and it dropped right through the hole, meaning the hole was too wide for the pin therefore the hole was over-sized. I told my boss, "Yeah the hole is too wide for the pin." He laughed, then he said some other **** to another employee and said, "Too big." I said, "Excuse me?" He said, "A hole can't be too wide, it's too big." But I've heard other quality inspectors say a hole is too wide. So, my question sums down to is why can't it be wide? I looked up the definitions of wide and big and to me it looks like you can use either word, if I'm wrong that's ok but I want to know why I'm wrong.