Thick a. (sb.)

Forms: 1 ðicce, (3 þihk), ðhikke, þeck, (9 dial. theck), 3–5 þ-, thikke, 3–6 þ-, thycke, 3–7 þ-, thicke, 4 thic, thikc, 4–5 þ-, thyk(e, thykke, þik, 4–6 thik, thikk, 5 thek, þ-, thike, 5–6 thyck, (7 thigge), 4– thick. [OE. þicce = OS. thikki (Du. dik), OHG. dicchi (G. dick), ON. þykkr, beside þjokki (Da. tyk, Sw. tjok, tjock), Goth. *þiqus:—OTeut. *þik(k)u^z, fem. þik(k)wī-; cf. Ir., Gael. tiugh (< *tigu-); ulterior etymology uncertain.)

  I.  1. Having relatively great extension between the opposite surfaces or sides; of comparatively large measurement through: as a thick wall, board, or plank, a thick stem, post, or stick; a thick stratum or seam of coal, a thick layer of fat or coating of paint, thick cloth, etc. Opposed to thin; distinct from long and broad: cf. sense 2.

c. 888.  K. Ælfred, Boeth., xxxv. § 4. Hi woldon witan hu heah hit wære to ðæm heofone, & hu ðicce se hefon wære & hu fæst.

c. 1000.  Sax. Leechd., II. 200. Leʓe on þone þiccestan clað oþðe on fel.

c. 1020.  Rule St. Benet, lv. (Logeman), 91. Culam [= cowl] on wintre þicce on sumere þinne.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 50. Þe blake cloð … is þiccure aȝein þe wind.

c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, vii. (Jacobus), 753. He saw a wal wes fow thyke.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 490/2. Thykke clothe.

1535.  Coverdale, 1 Kings xii. 10. My litle fynger shall be thicker then my fathers loynes.

1552.  Huloet, Thicke leafe, carnosum folium.

1687.  A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., I. 6. The Grapes that grow there … have a thick skin.

1776.  Withering, Brit. Plants (1796), III. 206. Stems several, the central one thickest; leafy.

1809.  Med. Jrnl., XXI. 335. The individuals belonging to the Austrian branch have thick lips.

1845.  Talfourd, Vac. Rambles, I. 174. The dull gleam through the thick glass of my small round peep-hole.

  fig.  a. 1571.  Jewel, Sacram., in Serm., etc. (1583), X v b. I neede not speake more hereof, the errour is so grosse, so thicke, so sensible and palpable.

  † b.  Extending far down from the surface; deep.

c. 893.  [see sense 2].

1676.  W. Row, Contn. Blair’s Autobiog., ix. (1848), 138. Riding the water of Belfast, it being thicker than he apprehended.

1693.  Evelyn, De la Quint. Compl. Gard., II. 58. A thick Frost would kill the Roots, as well as the Head.

  c.  Of a person or animal: Thickset, stout, burly. Obs. exc. dial.

a. 1250.  Owl & Night., 580. Ne þu nart þikke ne þu nart long.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 8570. Þikke mon he was ynou, round & noȝt wel long.

c. 1385.  Chaucer, L. G. W., 1198 (Dido). Vp on a thikke palfrey … Sit Dido.

1486.  Bk. St. Albans, a vj b. A longe hawke, a short thike hawke.

1570.  Foxe, A. & M. (ed. 2), 2252/1. She was … of a very litle and short stature, somwhat thicke.

1643.  Baker, Chron., Will. II., 49. He was but meane of stature, thick and square bodied.

1819.  W. Tennant, Papistry Storm’d, ii. (1827), 69. Thick Jamie Bud, lang Sandy Kay.

  † d.  transf. Having substance all through; solid, not hollow. Obs. rare^–1.

a. 1400–50.  Alexander, 4073. Imagis … He made his pepill þaim to perse, to proue þam with-in, Quethire þai ware hologhe or hale, & hale he þam fyndis, Saȝe þaim thike þurȝe-out.

  2.  Used (with words of measurement, or in the comparative or superlative) to express the third dimension of a solid, which has a direction at right angles at once to the length and the breadth: Having a (specified) thickness. (Sometimes equivalent to deep, but not now said of a body of water or other fluid.) Commonly following the words stating the measure, as ten feet thick, paper ¹/₁₀ of a millimeter thick.

  In this sense not opposed to thin; for the thinnest substance has some thickness, as the shortest line has some length, and the narrowest surface some breadth or width.

c. 893.  K. Ælfred, Oros., I. iii. § 1. Ælce ʓeare þæt land middeweard oferfleow mid fotes þicce flode. Ibid., IV. xiii. § 2. Se weall wæs xx fota ðicce, & XL elna heah.

c. 1384.  Chaucer, H. Fame, III. 245. Men myght make of hem a bible xx^ti foote thykke.

1493.  Litt. Red Bk. Bristol (1900), II. 134. Whiche wall we Fynde xxij yenchis thycke by the grownde.

1602.  Shaks., Ham., V. i. 214. Let her paint an inch thicke, to this fauour she must come.

1682.  Wheler, Journ. Greece, I. 70. The Front is thick Fourteen foot.

1703.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 88. One Inch thick, and three Inches broad.

1812.  New Bot. Gard., I. 61. Some very rotten dung put in the bottom six inches thick.

1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 69. When a sheet of water is not a quarter of an inch thick before it meets the float [of a mill-wheel].

  † b.  Standing one behind the other; = DEEP a. 2 b. Obs.

1604.  E. Grimstone, Hist. Siege Ostend, 56. They discouered their Gabions nine thicke.

1605.  B. Jonson, Volpone, I. i. ad fin. There is a guard of spies ten thick upon her.

1650.  Rudd, Geom. Questions, 130. The Pikes are invironed with shot four men thick, round about.

  3.  fig. Excessive in some disagreeable quality; too mach to manage or to stand; spec. too gross, indecent, or indelicate. Often in phrase ‘a bit thick.’ Cf. ‘to lay it on thick.’ slang.

1884.  Standard, 6 June, 6/3. I know it is thick in Brum. [Birmingham] for you, so that we must meet in London.

1902.  Daily Chron., 9. Sept., 7/3. Guardsmen who have been drinking are a thick lot,… and gentle methods will not always prevail with them.

1907.  H. Wales, The Yoke, xii. They hinted more than once that Christopher was ‘a bit thick.’

1907.  H. Wyndham, Flare of Footlights, x. ‘By the way, what’s the piece like?’… ‘A bit thick, my dear? I should just think it was! It’s an adaptation from the French, you know.’ Ibid., xxii. ‘It’s a bit thick,’ he said indignantly, when a man of my position is passed over for a beginner like young Merrick.’

1916.  J. H. McCarthy, In Spacious Times, xxxvi. 280. I may be a bit thick in the head, but I thank Heaven it is too thick to let some thoughts in, and again that it is too thick to let some thoughts out.

  II.  In general sense of dense.

  4.  Closely occupied, filled, or set with objects or individuals; composed of numerous individuals or parts densely arranged; dense, crowded. Of hair: Bushy, luxuriant.

c. 888.  K. Ælfred, Boeth., xxxv. § 5. Ðu … lædst me hidres & ðidres on swa þicne wudu.

a. 900.  O. E. Martyrol., 148. Þa ʓewat he in þone þiccestan wudu.

c. 1000.  Sax. Leechd., II. 156. ʓif hær to þicce sie, ʓenim [etc.].

c. 1205.  Lay., 27525. Amidden þan þrunge þer heo þihkest weoren.

a. 1250.  Owl & Night., 17. In ore vaste þikke hegge.

13[?].  K. Alis., 4067 (Bodl. Ms.). Of þe draweyng of bowȝes & stykke, Þe eyre bicom trouble & þicke.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. Wace, 13925. Mikel was þe pres, ful þykke þe þro.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 12496. A thoner and a thicke rayne þrublet in the skewes.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 490/2. Thykke, as wodys, gresse, or corne, or other lyke, densus.

1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, xxxiii. 89. Thik was the clud of kayis and crawis.

1612.  Proc. Virginia, 61, in Capt. Smith’s Wks. (Arb.), 424. He had a thicke blacke bush beard.

1620.  T. Granger, Div. Logike, 166. A thick multitude of people.

1658.  Dryden, Stanzas to O. Cromwell, xiv. Thick as the galaxy with stars is sown.

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 56, ¶ 3. A thick Forest made up of Bushes, Brambles, and pointed Thorns.

1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xii. III. 199. The women … were seen amidst the thickest fire serving out water and ammunition to their husbands and brothers.

1872.  Tennyson, Last Tourn., 213. Then fell thick rain.

1899.  Westm. Gaz., 24 Nov., 8/2. After … the high grass and thick country is entered.

  fig.  1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 355. Þey makeþ … melody wiþ wel þicke tunes, werbeles, and nootes.

1655.  Fuller, Ch. Hist., III. iv. § 24. His reign was not onely long … but also thick for remarkable mutations happening therein.

  b.  Const. with, † of.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 217. A wyndow thikke of many a barre Of Iren.

1535.  Coverdale, Ps. lxiv. [lxv.] 13. The valleys stonde so thicke with corne y^t they laugh and synge.

1558.  Phaer, Æneid, VII. S iij. This Laurel bushe full thick of browse.

1660.  F. Brooke, trans. Le Blanc’s Trav., 22. The Red Seas coast towards Aden is thick of good towns.

1700.  Dryden, Sigism. & Guiscardo, 102. A mount of rough ascent, and thick with wood.

1871.  Freeman, Norm. Conq., IV. xviii. 154. The whole range of walls and towers was thick with defenders.

  5.  Of the individual things collectively: Existing or occurring in large numbers in a relatively small space, or at short intervals; densely arranged, crowded; hence, numerous, abundant, plentiful. (Usually predicative, rarely attrib.)

c. 893.  K. Ælfred, Oros., I. i. § 9. Heo ʓedeð mid þæm flode swiþe þicce eorþwæstmas on Ægypta lande.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Wife’s T., 12. Hooly freres … As thikke as motes in the sonne beem.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), xxxiv. 152. Gude tounes er þare so thikk þat [etc.].

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 6626. He segh þe troiens so tore, & turnyt so þik, All pyght in a place on a playn feld.

1560.  Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 136. Rotman … running amonges his ennemies where they were thickest was slayne.

1667.  Milton, P. L., I. 303. His Legions … Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks In Vallombrosa.

1726.  Leoni, trans. Palladio’s Archit. (1742), I. 97. Thick columns … distant from each other … at the most two diameters.

c. 1813.  Mrs. Sherwood, Stories Ch. Catech., xxxvi. (1816), 367. We are pretty thick … in this berth.

1836.  Browning, Paracelsus, v. 369. Lay me … within some narrow grave … But where such graves are thickest.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., v. I. 629. Among the thick graves of unquiet and aspiring statesmen, lie more delicate sufferers.

  † b.  Of actions: Occurring in quick succession; rapid, frequent. Also transf. of an agent. Obs.

c. 1450.  St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 8319. Þe bischops prayers þik Made him to take þe bischopryk.

1552.  Huloet, Thycke speaker, tolutiloquus. Ibid., Thycke speakynge, tolutiloquentia.

1573–80.  Baret, Alv., T 154. A thicke and feeble beating of the pulse.

1611.  Shaks., Cymb., I. vi. 67. He furnaces The thicke sighes from him.

a. 1631.  Donne, Lett. (1651), 149. If you make not so thick goings as you used.

1665.  Dryden, Ind. Emperor, I. ii. Thick breath, quick Pulse and heaving of my Heart.

  6.  Having great or considerable density, either from natural consistence or from containing much solid matter; dense, viscid; stiff. (Said of liquids, semi-liquids, and plastic or easily liquefiable solids; formerly sometimes of solids generally.)

c. 888.  K. Ælfred, Boeth., xxxiii. § 5. Sio eorþe þon is hefiʓre & þiccre þon oðra ʓesceafta. Ibid. (c. 897), Gregory’s Past. C., xliv. 329. Ðonne ðæt mon gadriʓe ðæt ðicce fenn on hiene.

c. 1000.  Sax. Leechd., II. 74. Wæter … swa þicce swa huniʓes tear. Ibid., 314. Hrer on blede oþ ꝥ hit sie þicce swa þynne briw.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XIX. 398. I can … drawe … at on hole Þikke ale and þinne ale.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIX. lxiii. [xlviii.] (Bodl. MS.). Þ^e more þik melke is þ^e more chese is þerin.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 490/2. Thykke, as lycure, spissus.

1552.  Huloet, Thicke as dregges, turbidus.

1605.  Shaks., Macb., IV. i. 32. Make the Grewell thicke, and slab.

1674.  N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 86. So as the surface might not be some airsom body, but all such thick or fast body.

1875.  Darwin, Insectiv. Pl., v. 78. A mixture about as thick as cream.

1877.  Huxley, Physiogr., x. 161. Not … a clear bright spring, but … a thick stream laden with detritus.

1893.  Hodges, Elem. Photogr. (1907), 106. It should solidify into a thick jelly.

  fig.  1596.  Shaks., Tam. Shr., V. ii. 143. A woman mou’d, is like a fountaine troubled, Muddie, ill seeming, thicke, bereft of beautie. Ibid. (1602), Ham., IV. v. 82. The people muddied, Thicke and vnwholsome in their thoughts.

  b.  Of air: Foul from admixture of fumes, vapors, etc., stuffy, close; also, dense, not rare or thin. Now rare or Obs. (Cf. 7.)

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 104. Swot of … swoti hateren, oðer of þicke eir in hire huse.

1626.  Bacon, Sylva, § 143. When the air is more thick, as in the night, the sound spendeth and spreadeth abroad less.

1756–7.  trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), I. 330. Thick fogs … continually rising from the Po, and other waters, by which the air is rendered thick and moist, and consequently unhealthy.

1819.  Shelley, Peter Bell the Third, III. xxiii. They breathe an air Thick, infected, joy-dispelling.

  7.  Of mist, fog, smoke, etc.: Having the component particles densely aggregated, so as to intercept or hinder vision. Hence of the weather, etc.: Characterized by mist or haze; foggy, misty.

a. 1000.  Boeth. Metr., v. 6. Se þicca mist þynra weorðe. Ibid., xx. 264. Todrif þone þiccan [mist].

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Exod. xix. 16. Liʓetta & þunor & þicce ʓenip [nubes densissima] oferwreh þone munt.

c. 1290.  St. Michael, 621, in S. Eng. Leg., 317. Þanne freost þe þicke Myst, and cleouez an heiȝ on þe treo.

c. 1384.  Chaucer, H. Fame, II. 400. Or ellis was the aire so thikke That y ne myght not discerne.

c. 1400.  Song Roland, 848. Thik, and clowdy, and evyll wedur thene.

1594.  T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 211. Like to a thick smoke ascending out of a great fire which would dim the eies.

1654.  Whitelocke, Jrnl. Swed. Emb. (1772), II. 328. The fogge … was so thicke, that we could not see two ships length before us.

1745.  P. Thomas, Voy. S. Seas, 18. The Weather proving thick and hazy.

1836.  Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xxvi. The horizon was so thick that the vessels ahead were no longer to be seen.

1884.  Q. Victoria, More Leaves, 128. A very dull, dark thick morning…. Still, no rain.

  b.  transf., esp. of darkness: Difficult to penetrate; dense, deep, profound.

a. 900.  trans. Bæda’s Hist., V. xiii. [xii.] (1800), 436. Ða þeostro … swa micel & swa ðicco wæron, þæt ic noht ʓeseon meahte.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Hom., II. 194. Ðicce ðeostru and eʓeslice.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 3102. Ðhikke ðherknesse cam on ðat lond.

c. 1340.  Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 6566. Swa mykel myrknes, Þat it may be graped, swa thik it es.

1605.  Shaks., Macb., I. v. 51. Come thick Night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoake of Hell.

1611.  Bible, Exod. xx. 21. Moses drew neere vnto the thicke darkenes, where God was.

1781.  Sc. Paraphrases, I. ii. Thick darkness brooded o’er the deep.

  III.  In transferred senses.

  8.  Of the voice, etc.: Not clear; hoarse; having a confused or husky sound; indistinct, inarticulate; also, of low pitch; deep; guttural; throaty.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIX. cxxxi. (1495), 942. The voyces ben fatte and thycke whanne moche spyryte comyth out as the voys of a man.

1556, etc.  [implied in THICK adv. 4].

1748.  J. Mason, Elocut., 17. To cure a thick confused cluttering Voice.

1844.  Mrs. Carlyle, Lett. (1883), I. 283. His speech is … so thick that I have great difficulty in catching what he says.

1881.  Rossetti, Ballads & Sonn. (1882), 325. The young rooks cheep ’mid the thick caw o’ the old.

1887.  Hall Caine, Deemster, xxxiii. The thick boom of the sea that came up from the rocks.

1889.  Morfill, Gram. Russian Lang., 4. The sound of the vowel ы is a thick guttural e.

  9.  a. Of or in reference to hearing: Dull of perception; not quick or acute. Also of sight. (See also thick-eyed in 12 b, THICK-SIGHTED.) Now dial.

1526.  Tindale, Acts xxviii. 27. The hert off this people is wexed grosse and their eares wexe thycke of hearinge.

1594.  T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 81. Many become deafe by hearing ouergreat soundes, whereof wee haue experience in Smithes, amongest whome many are thicke of hearing.

1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., III. ii. 336. His Dimensions (to any thicke sight) were inuincible. Ibid. (1601), Jul. C., V. iii. 21. My sight was euer thicke.

1720.  Col. Rec. Pennsylv., III. 97. But we find their Ears are thick.

1888.  Elworthy, W. Somerset Gloss., s.v., ‘Thick o’ yearin’’ (hearing).

  b.  Of mental faculties or actions, or of persons: Slow (or characterized by slowness) of apprehension; dense, crass, thick-headed; stupid, obtuse. Now dial.

  (In quot. 1597 with play on sense 6.)

1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. iv. 262. Hang him Baboone, his Wit is as thicke as Tewksburie Mustard.

1603.  Hayward, Answ. to Doleman, iv. M j. I omit your thicke error in putting no difference betweene a magistrate and a king.

1670.  Penn, Liberty of Consc., v. 32. What if you think our Reasons thick, and our ground of Separation mistaken?

a. 1800.  Pegge, Suppl. Grose, Thick.… Also stupid. North.

1824.  Byron, Juan, XVI. lxxxiii. To hammer a horse laugh from the thick throng.

  IV.  10. (fig. from 5.) Close in confidence and association; intimate, familiar; often in similes (with allusion to other senses), e.g., as thick as glue, as inkle-weavers, as peas in a shell, as (two) thieves, as three in a bed, etc. colloq.

c. 1756.  Bp. Law, in J. Nichols, Lit. Anecd. 18th C. (1812), II. 70. ‘Yes,’ said he, ‘we begin now, though contrary to my expectation, and without my seeking, to be pretty thick; and I thank God who reconciles me to my adversaries.’

1781.  Twining, in Select. Papers T. Family (1887), 100. He and I were quite ‘thick.’ We rode together frequently.

1803.  Lamb, Lett. to Manning, Feb. Are you and the first consul thick?

1820.  Scott, Monast., Introd. Ep. That’s right, Captain,… you twa will be as thick as three in a bed an ance ye forgather.

1833.  T. Hook, Parson’s Dau., II. ii. She and my wife are as thick as thieves, as the proverb goes.

1836.  Lady Granville, Lett. (1894), II. 199. He is thick with all the new Ministers.

1869.  Routledge’s Ev. Boy’s Ann., 593. We soon grew as thick as inkle-weavers.

1912.  Jack Hines, Seegar and Cigareet, 19. He soon twigged that I was dippy over him, and he gave it all back to me. We was sure some thick friends.

  V.  11. Phrases. Thick and threefold: see THICK adv. 6; THICK AND THIN, q.v.

  12.  Combinations. Chiefly parasynthetic adjectives; these can be formed at pleasure; the following are specimens: thick-ankled (having thick ankles), -barred (having thick bars), thick-billed, -blooded, -bodied, -bottomed, -brained (in sense 9 b), -coated, -fleeced, -foliaged, -haired, -hided (hence -hidedness), -knobbed, -legged, -necked, -pated, -ribbed, -rinded, -shelled, -soled, -stemmed, -topped, -voiced, -walled. Also thick-looking (looking or seeming thick). See also THICK-HEADED, -SKINNED, -SKULLED, etc.

1853.  Tennyson, in Ld. Tennyson, Mem. (1897), II. 505. [In these, he would say] ‘Wordsworth seemed to him *thick-ankled.’

1753.  Young, Brothers, V. i. Ye *thick-barr’d sunless passages for air.

1855.  J. R. Leifchild, Cornwall Mines, 96. Slate abounding in tin is uniformly of a *thick-bedded, deep-blue colour.

1783.  Latham, Gen. Syn., III. 148. *Thick-billed Gr[osbeak]. Size of a Bulfinch: length five inches three quarters.

1897.  W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, Game-Birds, II. 151. The Thick-billed Partridges. Genus Odontophorus.

1888.  Doughty, Arabia Deserta, I. 471. A little of that *thick-blooded unforbearing, which was in her family, with her own elder son.

1752.  J. Hill, Hist. Anim., 110. The long-legged and *thick-bodied, small, green Lacerta.

1868.  Rep. U. S. Commission. Agric. (1869), 314. Small, thick-bodied butterflies.

1844.  Mrs. Browning, Duchess May, Concl. v. Though in passion ye would dash … Up against the *thick-bossed shield of God’s judgment in the field.

1619.  Drayton, Sacr. Apollo, vii. The *thick-brained audience lively to awake.

1620.  Venner, Via Recta, vi. 106. It … is for them that be short and *thicke breathed, the … greatest remedy.

1626.  Bacon, Sylva, § 318. A Pomegranate or some such thick-coated fruit.

1828.  P. Cunningham, N. S. Wales (ed. 3), II. 170. Clumps of *thick-foliaged trees.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 1660. Somme helden with hym with the blake berd, Somme with the balled, somme with the *thikke hered.

c. 1611.  Chapman, Iliad, II. 40. The thick-hair’d Greeks.

1861.  Kingsley, in Lett., etc. (1877), II. 132. But the mass will not have ——’s courage or *thick-hidedness.

1689.  Lond. Gaz., No. 2415/4. A Young Slender Horse 5 years old,… *thick Jawed.

1861.  Dickens, Gt. Expect., xxviii. Their keeper … carried a *thick-knobbed bludgeon.

1849.  Sk. Nat. Hist., Mammalia, III. 197. Forster’s Sea-Lion … everywhere equally *thick-looking, as Buffon describes it, like a great cylinder.

1591.  Percival, Sp. Dict., Cervigudo, *thicke necked.

1840.  Carlyle, Heroes, v. (1872), 176. There is the same burly thick-necked strength of body as of soul.

1754.  Garrick, Catherine & Petruchio, II. ii., in Inchbald, Farces, IV. 161. Cur. Away, you *thick-pated fool; I am no beast.

1603.  Shaks., Meas. for M., III. i. 123. To recide in thrilling Region of *thicke-ribbed Ice.

1590.  Greene, Orl. Fur., Wks. (Rtldg.), 95/2. And *thickest-shadow’d groves.

1649.  G. Daniel, Trinarch., The Author, 8. To stoope at the *thick-Shell’d Dorrs of Obiection.

1804.  Bewick, Brit. Birds (1847), II. 272. The female … lays … six or seven thick-shelled white eggs.

1815.  Scott, Guy M., l. His rough coat and *thick-soled boots.

1851.  Mantell, Petrif., i. § 3. 70. *Thick-toed tridactylous birds.

1552.  Huloet, *Thycke tothed, or stronge tothed, dentatus.

1859.  Cornwallis, New World, I. 63. A very stout, thick-set, *thick-voiced Yorkshireman.

1875.  Bennett & Dyer, Sachs’ Bot., 484. The very *thick-walled mother-cells do not become isolated.

  b.  Special combinations and collocations: thick-back, a species of sole, Solea variegata (Cent. Dict., 1891); thick-bill, a local name of the bullfinch; thick coal: see quot.; hence thick-coalman; thick end, the greater part of anything (dial.); thick-eyed a., having obscure vision, dim-sighted; thick intestine, Entom., in some insects, a dilatation of the posterior end of the ileum, forming a large blind sac turned back towards the ventricules; thick-leaf, a name of plants of the genus Crassula; † thick letter Typogr., type cast too thick: see quot.; † thick listed a. [LIST sb.¹], hard of hearing; thick register, the lowest register of the voice; thick seam, a seam of ‘thick coal’; also attrib.; thick-stamen (see quot.), a small genus of prostrate euphorbiaceous plants, the Alleghany Mountain Spurge; thick-stuff: see quot. c. 1850; thick tea, high tea (local); thick-tongued a., speaking thickly; thick wind, in Farriery, laborious breathing, usually due to previous inflammation; hence thick-winded adj. Also THICK-HEAD, THICK-KNEE, etc.

1847–78.  Halliwell, *Thick-bill, the bullfinch. Lanc.

1883.  Gresley, Coal Mining Gloss., *Thick Coals or Thick Seams, coal seams of greater thickness than (say) 8 or 10 feet…. The Thick coal of South Staffordshire is about 23 or 30 feet thick.

1894.  Daily News, 7 May, 8/4. The new scale will give 1d per ton rise in *thick-coalmen’s wages for every 1¹/₂d advance in the price of thick coal.

1847–78.  Halliwell, s.v., ‘The *thick-end of a mile.’ Linc.

1865.  W. White, E. Eng., II. 66. When he spoke of the thick end of a mile, it reminded me of the ‘thick league’ of a certain rustic whom I once accosted on the sandy wastes of Friesland.

1877.  N. W. Lincs. Gloss., s.v., I’ve gotten th’ thick end o’ th’ job finished wi’.

1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. iii. 49. *Thicke-ey’d musing, and curst melancholly.

1684.  Lond. Gaz., No. 1976/4. A gray Horse, Milk white about the Mouth and Tail,… all his Paces, thickeyed.

1884.  Miller, Plant-n., *Thick-leaf, the genus Crassula.

1683.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, 392. A Fount of Letter that Rubs not high enough into the Neck is called *Thick Letter; and consequently will Drive out Matter.

[c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 129. Deue we ben, oðer *þicke liste, þanne we heren speke godes word and nimeð þer to litel geme.]

1579.  Twyne, Phisicke agst. Fort., II. xcvii. 289. They that are thicke listed, seeme in a maner to be out of their wittes.

1905.  J. Heywood, Music in Churches, 17. Average choir boys cannot recite on a low note without being liable to use the thick register or chest voice instead of the medium register, and the use of their lower mechanism is usually accompanied with … coarseness of tone.

1883.  *Thick seam [see thick coal].

1892.  Daily News, 25 Jan., 2/6. The leading thick-seam pits are sending a large tonnage to Hull and Grimsby.

1878.  T. Meehan, Native Fl. & Ferns U. S., I. 30. The stamens have remarkably thick filaments, and this suggested its botanical name Pachysandra, which is the Greek for *‘thick-stamen.’

1884.  Miller, Plant-n., American Thick-stamen, Pachysandra procumbens.

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), H iij. The *thick stuff, or strong planks of the bottom withinboard.

c. 1850.  Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 155. Thickstuff, a name for sided timber exceeding 4 inches, but not being more than 12 inches, in thickness.

1893.  Daily News, 1 June, 5/2. Perhaps something might have been said for the compromise of a *thick tea. Ibid. (1898), 18 Dec., 3/6. The ‘thick teas’ of Lancashire have long been celebrated for their eccentricity.

1887.  Poor Nellie (1888), 370. Though *thick-tongued still, she spoke more clearly.

1831.  [Youatt], Horse, x. 193. *Thick wind consists in short, frequent, and laborious breathing, especially when the animal is in exercise.

a. 1694.  Life M. Robinson (1856), 35. He was *thickwinded and ungovernable.

1704.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3981/4. A … Mare,… thick Winded.

1831.  [Youatt], Horse, x. 193. Heavy draught-horses are … thick-winded.

  B.  absolute use of adj., passing into sb.: That which (rarely, one who) is thick, in any sense.

  I.  Only in sing. 1. The most densely occupied or crowded part (of a wood, an assemblage, etc.).

a. 1250.  Owl & Night., 1626. Me may vppe smale sticke Me sette a wude ine þe þikke.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (1839), xxi. 226. Ȝif ony of hem had ben hid in the thikke of the wodes.

a. 1548.  Hall, Chron., Edw. IV., 221. Some fledde for succor in the thyck of the parke.

1603.  Knolles, Hist. Turks (1610), 585. Achimetes hauing with a mine suddenly blowne vp a great part of the wall of the Spanish station, in the thick of the dust and smoke presently entred his men, who by the ruines of the wall recouered the top of the rampiers.

1637.  Rutherford, Lett. (1671), 28. if I could yoke in amongst the thick of Angels, and Seraphims.

1714.  Spect., No. 625, ¶ 22. In the Anti-chamber, where I thrust my Head into the thick of the Press.

1857.  Lady Canning, in Hare, Two Noble Lives (1893), II. 328. The Residency buildings and its gardens are in the thick of the town.

1890.  C. Martyn, W. Phillips, 192. Mr. Phillips was constantly out in the thick and throng of the world.

  b.  fig. The position, time, stage, or state in which activity is most intense; the midst, the height (of an action). Always in the thick of.

1681.  Flavel, Meth. Grace, x. 214. Something they enjoy … in the very thick of troubles.

1821.  Byron, Sardan., III. i. 111. Where a soldier should be. In the thick of the fight.

1849.  C. Brontë, Shirley, I. They are in the thick of a revival.

1870.  Burton, Hist. Scot. (1873), V. lv. 105. The bishop was in the thick of these splendid projects.

1885.  Dunckley, in Manch. Exam., 15 June, 6/2. We are now in the thick of a Cabinet crisis.

  2.  The more turbid or viscid part of a liquid, which usually subsides to the bottom. rare.

c. 1400[?].  Lydg., Æsop’s Fab., ii. 39. He was wont my water here to trouble, To meue þe thyk, þat lay low doune.

1707.  Mortimer, Husb. (1721), I. 78. This he dissolved in Water, and poured off the thick into another Bason, till all was gone but the Sand.

  3.  The thick part of a limb or of the body.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 9021. He … braid out a big sword,… & derit hym full euyll Throgh the thicke of the thegh.

1470–85.  Malory, Arthur, VII. xxii. 248. He smote hym with a foyne thorou the thycke of the thyȝ.

1880.  Tennyson, Northern Cobbler, xv. An’ blacksmith ’e strips me the thick ov ’is airm, an ’e shaws it to me.

  4.  So thickest (the superl. adj. used absol. as sb.): the thickest part (in any of prec. senses).

c. 1470.  Henry, Wallace, II. 56. Throuch oute the thikest of the pres he ȝeid.

1548.  Udall, Erasm. Par. Luke iii. 37. Puttyng himself in coumpaignie emong the thickest of the people.

1617.  Moryson, Itin., II. 24. Valiantly fighting among the thickest of the Rebels.

1868.  Freeman, Norm. Conq., II. viii. 259. Henry was … soon again in the thickest of the fight.

  II.  sb. with pl. 5. (from 1) = THICKET. Now rare.

c. 825.  Vesp. Psalter, xxviii. [xxix.] 9. Stefn dryhtnes ʓearwienden heoretas & biwrah ða ðiccan [Vulg. revelavit condensa].

c. 1430.  Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, II. cxxxii. (1869), 126. He may not sette the wacches in the thikke ther thei ben.

a. 1547.  Surrey, Æneid, IV. 708. Among the bushy thickes of bryar.

1612.  Drayton, Poly-olb., iii. 118. Where mists and rotten fogs Hang in the gloomie thicks, and make vnstedfast bogs.

1812.  Sporting Mag., XXXIX. 200. A fox … made good his retreat to Sir Thos. Beauchamp’s thicks.

1836.  L. Hunt, in New Monthly Mag., XLVII. 20. The lusty bee … dances in the bloomy thicks with darksome antheming.

  6.  School slang. A thick-headed or stupid person.

1857.  Hughes, Tom Brown, I. vii. What a thick I was to come! Ibid., II. viii. I’m such a thick, I never should have had time for both.

1891.  Wrench, Winchester Word-bk., s.v., He is not a thick, but he won’t mug.