adj. (colloquial).—One or two modern usages of THIN verge on the colloquial: e.g., a THIN (= poor) EXCUSE; a THIN (= gutless) PLAY; a THIN (= trashy) NOVEL; TOO THIN (or T. T.) = frivolous, inadequate, insufficient to deceive, etc. Also (proverbial), ‘As THIN as a lath’; ‘As THIN as the last run of shad.’
1601. SHAKESPEARE, Henry VIII., v. 3. 125. You were ever good at sudden commendations … now … they are TOO THIN and bare to hide offences.
1734. POPE, Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, 93. Throned in the centre of his THIN designs.
1751. SMOLLETT, Peregrine Pickle, xxvi. This pretext was TOO THIN to impose upon her lover.
1763. FOOTE, The Mayor of Garratt, i. Sneak. You see … I am almost as THIN AS A LATH. Bruin. An absolute skeleton.
1889. Modern Society, 13 July, 852. ‘Christopher’s Honeymoon,’ by M. Malcolm Watson, produced at the Strand, on Wednesday, is not wholly bad, but it is TOO THIN.
