A Shakespearian phrase. “They are too thin and bare to hide offences” (‘Henry VIII.,’ v. 2).
1861. The little disguise that the supposed right is to be exercised only for just cause, themselves to be the sole judge of its justice, is too thin to merit any notice.—President Lincoln’s Message to Congress, July 5: O. J. Victor, ‘The History … of the Southern Rebellion,’ ii. 229.
