Forms: see the adj. [OE. þicce = OS. thikko, OHG. diccho: see THICK a.] In a thick manner, thickly. (After many verbs as come, fall, lie, stand, sow, etc., when thick expresses the accompanying or resulting condition, it is often rather an adj. than an adv.; cf. L. pinus prona cadit; supinus cadere.)
1. So as to be thick; to a great depth.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 151/22. Pauidensis, ðicce ʓewefen hræʓel.
c. 1300. Cursor M., 3377 (Cott.). Suilk er in þis liue ful thikc, Forgetes þe deid for þe quick.
1670. H. Stubbe, Plus Ultra, 136. We found the passage crusted very thick.
1713. Addison, Cato, I. iii. Cato has piercing eyes, and will discern Our frauds, unless they’re cover’d thick with art.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. x. 67. The snow … lay thick upon the glacier.
† b. fig. Deeply, severely. Obs. rare.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., C. 6. Quo for þro may noȝt þole, þe þikker he sufferes.
c. To lay it on thick, (fig.) to do something with vehemence or excess. Cf. LAY v.1 55 f.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), I. Introd. Lay it on thick, I beg, while your hand is in.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., xi. Lay it on thick, and never mind expenses.
1888. Mrs. H. Ward, R. Elsmere, xviii. Henslowe lays it on thick—paints with a will.
† d. After a sum of money: To the extent of (so much), ‘deep.’ Obs.
1570. Foxe, A. & M. (ed. 2), 2142/2. Which then cost the Universitie an hundreth pound thicke.
1592. Greene, Blacke Bks. Messenger, Wks. (Grosart), XI. 31. My couetous maister is cheated fortie or fiftie pound thick at one clap. Ibid. (1592), Repentance, ibid. XII. 177.
2. In a thick, dense, or crowded state; closely, densely, compactly; in crowds or throngs; numerously, abundantly. (See also thick and threefold in 6.)
971. Blickl. Hom., 203. Ða fluʓon þa leʓetu swylce fyrene strælas … toðæm þicce þæt [etc.].
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., III. 234. Eall swa þicce is þeo heofon mid steorrum afylled on dæʓ swa on niht.
a. 1175. Cott. Hom., 237. Of þe folce we siggeð þat hit … elce deȝie þicce þringeð.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 26/72. Þut folk a-boute heom cam ase þicke ase huy miȝten go.
c. 1305. St. Lucy, 12, in E. E. P. (1862), 101. Þat folc wende þider þicke.
c. 1400. Brut, lxxviii. 79. Þai deide wonder þik wiþin the citee for hunger.
c. 1500. Melusine, 289. Quarelles & arowes, that flewh so thyk.
1523. Fitzherbert, Husb., § 12. The beste propertie … is, to sowe all maner of corne thycke ynough.
a. 1687. Petty, Pol. Arith. (1600), 73. When England shall be thicker peopled.
1772–84. Cook’s Voy. (1790), V. 1683. The woods in many places … so thick intersected with boughs and matted with leaves.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xiv. III. 454. Doubts came thick upon him.
3. In close or rapid succession; frequently; quickly; fast. Often thick and fast. (See also thick and threefold in 6.)
a. 1000. Cædmon’s Gen., 684 (Gr.). Hio spræc him þicce to.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 655 (Cleopatras). Ffor strokys whiche that wente as thikke as hayl.
c. 1450. in Aungier, Syon (1840), 255. She schal nothing say butte ‘Mea culpa, I wylle amende,’ whiche sche schal reherse thykke and many tymes.
1540. Act 32 Hen. VIII., c. 43. The sayd apparaunce & attendaunce commeth so often and thicke together.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 165. Cock croweth at midnight, times few aboue six,… At three a clock thicker.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., III. xxi. 210. Great talkers discharge too thick to take alwayes true aim.
1706. E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 98. He and his Brother-Jacks … toss Jests and Oaths about as thick and fast as Boys do Squibs.
1729. Law, Serious C., xx. (1732), 378. It will perhaps be thought … that these hours of prayer come too thick.
1869. Freeman, Norm. Conq., III. xi. 66. Thick and fast indeed came the events.
4. With confused and indistinct articulation; also, with a husky or hoarse voice.
1556. W. Towrson, in Hakluyt, Voy. (1589), 102. These wordes they speake very thicke.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. iii. 24. Speaking thicke (which Nature made his blemish) Became the Accents of the Valiant.
1686. Lond. Gaz., No. 2143/4. He speaks so thick that he is scarce to be understood.
a. 1791. Tom Line, xiii., in Child, Ballads (1884), II. 343/2. Out then spak her father dear, He spak baith thick and milde.
5. With density or thick consistence; densely.
a. 1711, 1746. [implied in thick-clouded, -streaming in 7].
Mod. colloq. The syrup runs thick. The porridge stirs thick.
6. Phrases. To lay it on thick: see 1 c. Thick and fast: see 3. Thick and threefold, advb. (sb., adj.) phr. a. In large numbers; in quick succession; with rapid iteration. arch. and dial.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 186. When mo newe Testamentes were Imprinted thei came thicke and threfold into Englande.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 134. There dwell deuylles thycke and threfolde.
a. 1592. Greene, Alphonsus, I. Wks. (Rtldg.), 225/2. How that such clients cluster’d to thy court, By thick and threefold.
1613. Day, Dyall, ix. (1614), 218. Our Antipodes of Rome that so much boast of the Fathers, and how they are theirs, thicke and threefold.
1710. trans. Werenfels’s Disc. Logom., 3. Scoffs and Reproaches come thick and threefold.
1872. De Morgan, Budget of Paradoxes, 163. A … writer … who threw aspersions on his opponents thick and threefold.
† b. With vehemence; fervently, ardently, impetuously. Obs. rare–1.
1627. W. Sclater, Exp. 2 Thess. (1629), 295. So thicke and threefold he falls vpon his deuotion.
† c. as adj. Abundant and frequent. Obs.
1614. Day, Festivals, xi. (1615), 302. The Commendations given Anna here are thicke and threefold.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, V. i. ¶ 4. This thick and threefold companionship with [the] birch was not the only rub.
7. In combination with participles (with hyphen, or as single words); forming adjs., usually of obvious meaning, unlimited in number; as a. in sense 1, as thick-blown, -plied, -spread, -woven, -wrought; b. in senses 2 and 3, as thick-beating, -coming, -drawn, -flaming, -growing, -jeweled, -laid, -packed, -rustling, -spreading, -starred, etc.; c. in sense 4, as thick-speaking; d. in sense 5, as thick-clouded, -streaming.
1690. Dryden, Don Sebast., IV. i. The trampling of *thick-beating feet.
1725. Ramsay, Gentle Sheph., I. ii. The *thick-blawn wreaths of snaw.
a. 1711. Ken, Edmund, Poet. Wks. 1721, II. 355. Your now *thick-clouded Mind.
1605. Shaks., Macb. V. iii. 38. Troubled with *thicke-comming Fancies.
1715–20. Pope, Iliad, III. 6. With piercing frosts, or *thick-descending rain.
1777. J. Mountain, Poet. Reveries (ed. 2), 6. His children watch his *thick-drawn breath.
1757. Dyer, Fleece, IV. Poems (1761), 184. While flames, *thick-flashing in the gloom.
1865. Trollope, Belton Est., xxxi. Wide fields and *thick-growing woods.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., III. i. 1. Vnder this *thicke growne brake.
1833. Tennyson, Lady of Shalott, III. iii. All in the blue unclouded weather *Thick-jewell’d shone the saddle-leather.
1698. Norris, Pract. Disc. (1707), IV. 191. So *thick-laid are the Temptations of the World.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, I. ii. 10. Walking in a *thick pleached alley.
1840. Carlyle, Heroes, vi. (1872), 204. The *thick-plied perversions which distort our image of Cromwell.
1861. W. F. Collier, Hist. Eng. Lit., 114. The *thick-speaking, shambling,… pedant.
1740. Somerville, Hobbinol, I. 9. On the large Bough Of a *thick-spreading Elm.
1676. Dryden, Aurengzebe, I. i. Of *thick-sprung Lances in a waving Field.
c. 1391. Chaucer, Astrol., II. § 23. In some wynters nyht, whan the firmament is clere & *thikke-sterred.
1860. Emerson, Cond. Life, Worship, Wks. (Bohn), II. 408. Thick-starred Orion was my only companion.
1746. Francis, trans. Hor., Sat., I. viii. 47. They … fill’d a magic Trench profound With a black Lamb’s *thick-streaming Gore.
1738. Wesley, Psalms, CXVIII. iv. Hosts of Enemies Vexatious as *thick-swarming Bees.
1595. Locrine, II. v. 39. Amongst the dangers of the *thick throngd pikes.
c. 1410. Master of Game (MS. Digby 182), ii. Whan þe heed is of gret beemes and is wele afeeted and *thike tynded.
1671. Milton, P. R., IV. 246. Where the Attic Bird Trills her *thick-warbl’d notes.
1865. Q. Rev., April, 329. The *thick-wove paper, and the brilliant type.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 437. Now hid, now seen Among *thick-wov’n Arborets and Flours.
1743. Francis, trans. Hor., Odes, I. vii. 28. Whether … Tibur holds thee in its *thick-wrought Shade.
