thick

comparative thicker · superlative thickest

1. Relatively great in extent from one surface to the opposite in its smallest solid dimension.

   The thickest salmon, the curdiest trout, the fattest partridge, and the most tender woodcock smoked on his board, and, rumor said, cooked with a delicacy that more pretentious houses could not rival.

   1861, Charles James Lever, A Day's Ride

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   The face which emerged was not reassuring. It was blunt and grey, the nose springing thick and flat from high on the frontal bone of the forehead, whilst his eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue.[…].

   1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 17, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

   Synonyms: broad, broad, wide · Antonyms: slim, thin, close, filamentous, fine, narrow, slender, slim

2. Measuring a certain number of units in this dimension.

   I want some planks that are two inches thick.

3. Heavy in build; thickset.

   He had such a thick neck that he had to turn his body to look to the side.

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   As she twirled around in front of the mirror admiring how the dress showed off her thick booty, she felt like a princess in a children's storybook.

   2007, James T. Knight, Queen of the Hustle

   JJ loved “average hood girls”, Cody loved dark-skinned thick girls and Mooch lusted for yellow-boned skinny woman.

   2009, Kenny Attaway, Nuthouse Love, page 82

   Synonyms: chunky, solid, stocky, thickset, fat · Antonyms: slender, slight, slim, svelte, thin, gaunt, gracile, lank

4. Densely crowded or packed.

   We walked through thick undergrowth.

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   My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter III, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms: crowded, dense, packed, close, compact, crowded, dense, solid · Antonyms: sparse, diffuse, dispersed, incompact, loose, noncompact, scattered, spaced out

5. Having a viscous consistency.

   My mum’s gravy was thick but at least it moved about.

   Synonyms: glutinous, viscous, lentous, glutinous, gooey, slabby, stiff, syrupy · Antonyms: free-flowing, runny, flowy, fluent, fluid, fluxive, free-flowing, liquid

6. Abounding in number.

   Seashells lay thick on the beach.

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   The room was thick with reporters.

   Synonyms: overflowing, swarming, teeming, abounding, abundant, adequate, ample, bountiful · Antonyms: scant, scarce, slight

7. Impenetrable to sight.

   We drove through thick fog.

   Synonyms: dense, opaque, solid, adiaphanous, nontransparent, opacous, opacular, opaque · Antonyms: thin, transparent, clear, clear as crystal, crystalline, diaphanous, glassy, hyaline

8. Prominent, strong.
   1. Of an accentGreatly evocative of one's nationality or place of origin.

      He answered me in his characteristically thick Creole patois.

   2. Of an accentDifficult to understand, or poorly articulated.

      We had difficulty understanding him with his thick accent.

      Synonyms: unclear, abstruse, Chinese, dense, enigmatic, fathomless, bottomless, Greek · Antonyms: clear, lucid, apprehensible, clear, limpid, comprehensible, explainable, explicable

9. informalStupid.

   He was as thick as two short planks.

   Synonyms: dense, dumb, stupid, thick as pigshit, thick as two short planks, addlebrained, addlepated, airheaded · Antonyms: brainy, intelligent, smart, astute, brainy, bright, brilliant, clever

10. informalFriendly or intimate.

    They were as thick as thieves.

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    Jem is a tall, good-looking fellow, as old as I am, and that's twenty-one last birthday; we came into the office together years ago, and have been very thick ever since

    1859, Thomas Hughes, The Scouring of the White Horse

    Synonyms: chummy, close, close-knit, friendly, pally, intimate, tight-knit · Antonyms: unacquainted

11. Deep, intense, or profound.

    Thick darkness.

    Synonyms: great, extreme

12. literaryDetailed and expansive; substantive.

    A thick theory, such as libertarianism or socialism, is not appropriate as the basis for a constitution in a pluralistic society in which the people hold differing views about the good (or justice).

    2013, John O. McGinnis, Michael B. Rappaport, Originalism and the Good Constitution, →ISBN, page 5

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    Thick prehistory also is interested in a much broader array of topics than the perennial sociological concern for how individuals relate to the collective and how social continuity and change occur in light of that relationship; thick prehistory addresses the social, biological, and psychological person.

    2006, Christopher Carr, D. Troy Case, “The Gathering of Hopewell”, in Christopher Carr, D. Troy Case, editors, Gathering Hopewell: Society, Ritual, and Ritual Interaction, →ISBN, page 47

    Nor is his defence of market capitalism likely to persuade all his progressive friends, because no matter how much fairness is achieved through an application of the difference principle, they are reluctant to accept Tomasi’s defence of private property rights or a thick concept of economic freedom.

    2021, Wanjiru Njoya, Economic Freedom and Social Justice: The Classical Ideal of Equality in Contexts of Racial Diversity, →ISBN, page 95

13. UKdatedTroublesome; unreasonable.

    "Of course I was eager to put her affairs in order," George told my father, "but I found it a bit thick when expected to pay for Lord Randolph Churchill's barouche purchased in the '80s."

    1969, Anita Leslie, Lady Randolph Churchill, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 288

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    “Screaming headlines in every paper in the country—damn all journalists, I say! Do you know there was a whole crowd staring in at the lodge gates this morning. Sort of Madame Tussaud’s chamber of horrors business that can be seen for nothing. Pretty thick, isn’t it?”

    1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 126

14. slangCurvy and voluptuous, and especially having large hips.

    A word to the thick soul sistas, I want to get with ya

    1991, “Baby Got Back”, in Mack Daddy, performed by Sir Mix-a-Lot

    Synonyms: built, buxom, chubby, curvaceous, curvesome, curvy, embonpoint, full-figured

comparative thicker · superlative thickest

1. In a thick manner.

   Snow lay thick on the ground.

2. Frequently or numerously.

   The arrows flew thick and fast around us.

plural thicks

1. The thickest, or most active or intense, part of something.

   It was mayhem in the thick of battle.

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   He through a little window cast his sight / Through thick of bars, that gave a scanty light.

   1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

2. A thicket.

   gloomy thicks

   1612, Michael Drayton, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] [Humphrey Lownes] for M[athew] Lownes; I[ohn] Browne; I[ohn] Helme; I[ohn] Busbie, →OCLC

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   Through the thicke they heard one rudely rush.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

3. slangA stupid person; a fool.

   If there was doctorates in bollocksology and scratching yourself in bed, the two of you'd be professors by now. Pair of loafing, idle thicks.

   2014, Joseph O'Connor, The Thrill of It All, page 100

present singular third person thicks · participle present thicking · participle past thicked · past thicked

1. ambitransitivearchaicTo thicken.

   The nightmare Life-in-death was she, / Who thicks man's blood with cold.

   1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, chapter 3, in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, lines 193–194

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   A wicked ambush , which lay hidden long In the close covert of her guilful eyen, Thence breaking forth , did thick about me throng

   1595, Edmunde Spenser [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “[Amoretti.] Sonnet VII”, in Amoretti and Epithalamion. […], London: […] [Peter Short] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC

1. alternativeAlternative form of thilk (“that same”).