[OE. þynnian, f. þynne, THIN a. Cf. OHG. dunnên, Ger. dünnen, MLG. dunnen, MDu. dunnen, dinnen, Du. dunnen, ON. þynna to thin.]
1. trans. To make thin; to reduce in thickness or depth; to spread or draw out in a thin layer or thread. To thin of, down: to diminish gradually to vanishing point.
c. 900. Bede Glosses, 80, in O. E. Texts, 182. Obtenuerað (t), ðynnade.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Saints’ Lives, xxxiii. 236. And ne oncneow hi na for-þam heo wæs swiðe ʓeþynnod.
1482. Monk of Evesham (Arb.), 41. For the stature and forme of some of them was as hyt had be lessyd or thynnyde by tormentys.
1608. Topsell, Serpents (1658), 616. To smooth and thin the skin.
1684. R. Waller, Nat. Exper., 117. The battered Silver (which being so little Ductile did not at all thin, and distend it self).
1727. Philip Quarll (1816), 56. Having resolved, as the summer approached, to thin his clothing by degrees.
1793. Trans. Soc. Arts, V. 204. The two ends are to be thinned off in form of a wedge.
1891. G. Meredith, One of our Conq., III. iv. 66. She … had thinned her lips for utterance of a desperate thing.
b. fig. (In quot. 1382 a literalism of translation.)
1382. Wyclif, Jer. xxx. 19. Y shal glorifie them, and thei shuln not be thynned [Vulg. non attenuabuntur].
1670. Eachard, Cont. Clery, 33. By this means he has usually so thinn’d his judgment.
1787. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), II. 117. Real friends, whose affections are not thinned to cob-web.
1874. H. R. Reynolds, John Bapt., viii. 497. To thin down the distinction between the mission, character, education, and position of John and those of Christ.
2. intr. To become thin or thinner; to decrease in thickness or depth. To thin out (off, away): to become gradually thinner until it disappears, as a layer or stratum. Also fig.
1804. Coleridge, Lett., to D. Stuart (1895), 475. A rock which thins as it rises up.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 341. When a number of beds thin out gradually, and at different points.
1833. Herschel, Astron., viii. 256. The half-moon becomes a crescent, which thins off.
1851. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XII. II. 473. In which direction the boulder clay appears to thin off.
1874. Hardy, Far fr. Madding Crowd, xxii. Men thin away to insignificance and oblivion.
1899. J. Hutchinson, in Arch. Surg., X. 155. Their usual course is to cause the nail over them to thin and break down.
b. spec. To lose flesh; to become spare or lean.
1870. Pall Mall G., 7 Sept., 11. During this troubled period he had thinned so as to seem a different man.
1893. Chamb. Jrnl., 19 Aug., 523/2. Her fresh comeliness left her; her face thinned down.
3. trans. To render less crowded or close by removing individuals; hence, to reduce in number.
a. With an assemblage of individuals as object.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 491/1. Thynnyn, or make thynne, as wodys, cornys, gresse.
1687. Dryden, Hind & P., II. 243. As when the cause goes hard, the guilty man Excepts, and thins his jury all he can.
1699. S. Sewall, Diary, 28 Dec. Our Meeting was pretty much thin’d by it.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Homes Abroad, i. 12. To thin our population.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xvi. III. 681. The malady which had thinned the ranks of Schomberg’s army at Dundalk.
b. With the individuals as object.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 554. T’ unload the Branches, or the Leaves to thin, That suck the Vital Moisture of the Vine.
1786. Abercrombie, Gard. Assist., 257. Hoe and thin turneps.
1850. Florist, Aug. Thin out superfluous shoots.
1856. Dickens, Lett. (1880), I. 439. Your friend … has thinned the trees.
1890. Spectator, 19 April. For reducing the new expenditure on drink, and for thinning-off the public-houses in the rural districts.
c. To render (a place) less closely or numerously occupied by the removal of occupants.
1743. Blair, Grave, 213. Who … in a cruel wantonness of power Thinn’d states of half their people.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), III. 400. It would soon thin the forest of every other living creature.
1856. Merivale, Rom. Emp., IV. xl. 507. The Forum and other public places were deliberately thinned of their overgrowths of sculpture.
1905. Daily Chron., 24 Aug., 4/7. A head already thinned of hair.
4. intr. Of a place: To become less full or crowded; of a crowd: to become less numerous.
1779. Earl Carlisle, in Jesse, Selwyn & Contemp. (1844), IV. 180. The town begins to thin, though Parliament is still sitting.
1805. Han. More, in Roberts, Mem. (1835), III. 240. No resident minister:… the church of course thins.
1828. Examiner, 129/1. The band … is steadily thinning.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, iv. ‘The streets have thinned,’ as Mr. Gills says, ‘very much.’
c. 1860. Faber, Hymn, ‘After a Death,’ xvii. My world of friends thins round me fast.
1897. H. Drummond, Ideal Life, 101. The crowd thinned.
5. trans. To make less thick, dense, or viscid; to dilute. Also fig.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 194. Þat ofstandene þicce slipiʓe horh þu scealt … wyrman & þynnian.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, Cant., 497. Myn eghyn ere thynyd, that is … purgid of vile lustis … and made sutil.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 491/2. Thynnyn, or make thynne, as lycurys, tenuo.
1605. Timme, Quersit., III. 182. This water … cutteth and thinneth grosse matters.
1796. Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, xxi. 336. Mix half a pound of best flour, and thin it with damask-rose-water.
1880. J. Caird, Philos. Relig., ii. 60. By thinning down the idea of God to an abstraction which would embrace under a common head the rudest fetishism and the spiritual theism of Christianity.
1890. Abney, Photogr. (ed. 6), 76. The … liquid is … thinned down to proper fluidity.
6. intr. To become less dense or consistent; to grow fluid, tenuous, or rare.
1834. M. Scott, in Blackw. Mag., XXXV. 900. Gradually the figure, without changing its position, thinned, and anon … the stars were seen through it.
1884. S. Cox, Miracies, 63. The haze of difficulty which enshrouds them thins.
