thick and thin

noun

Both thickets and thin woodland; all obstacles in a path (including bad weather).

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Meanings

nounthick and thin (uncountable)
  1. uncountableBoth thickets and thin woodland; all obstacles in a path (including bad weather).

    His tyreling Jade he fiersly forth did push / Through thicke and thin, both over banck and bush [...]

    1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
  2. idiomaticuncountableBoth good and bad times.

    I must follow him through thick and thin.

    1687, John Phillips, transl., Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes
    3 more examples

    As Joan of France, or English Mall, / Through perils both of Wind and Limb, / Through thick and thin she follow'd him, / In ev'ry Adventure h' undertook, / And never him, or it forsook.

    1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto II.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 38

    He became the panegyrist, through thick and thin, of a military frenzy.

    1835 July, Sara Coleridge, Letter to Mrs. Henry Jones

    They say that when the chips are down, girl Your love won't stay so long, my friend But they don't know that your sweet loving, babe Has been around through thick and thin

    1968 December 8, Henry Cosby, Sylvia Moy, Stevie Wonder, “I’d Be a Fool Right Now”, in For Once in My Life, performed by Stevie Wonder, Tamla Records

Translations

Czech dobré i zlé
  • dobré i zléboth good and bad times
Dutch door dik en dun
  • door dik en dunboth good and bad times
Finnish hyvät ja huonot ajat (but also see myötä- ja vastoinkäymiset)
  • hyvät ja huonot ajat (but also see myötä- ja vastoinkäymiset)both good and bad times
German durch dick und dünn
  • durch dick und dünnboth good and bad times
Norwegian Bokmål tykt og tynt
  • tykt og tyntboth good and bad times
Polish na dobre i na złe
  • na dobre i na złeboth good and bad times
Swedish vått och torrt, regn och rusk
  • vått och torrtboth good and bad times
  • regn och ruskboth good and bad times
  • ur och skurboth good and bad times
Cite this entry
APA

thick and thin. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thick%20and%20thin

MLA

“thick and thin.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thick%20and%20thin. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “thick and thin,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thick%20and%20thin.

Source: thick and thin on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.