thick

The thickest salmon, the curdiest trout, the fattest partridge, and the most tender woodcock smoked on his board, and, rumor said, cooked with a delicacy that more pretentious houses could not rival.

1861, Charles James Lever, A Day's Ride:

The face which emerged was not reassuring. It was blunt and grey, the nose springing thick and flat from high on the frontal bone of the forehead, whilst his eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue.[…].

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 17, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

Relatively great in extent from one surface to the opposite in its smallest solid dimension.

I want some planks that are two inches thick.

Measuring a certain number of units in this dimension.

As she twirled around in front of the mirror admiring how the dress showed off her thick booty, she felt like a princess in a children's storybook.

2007, James T. Knight, Queen of the Hustle:

JJ loved “average hood girls”, Cody loved dark-skinned thick girls and Mooch lusted for yellow-boned skinny woman.

2009, Kenny Attaway, Nuthouse Love, page 82:

He had such a thick neck that he had to turn his body to look to the side.

My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter III, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

We walked through thick undergrowth.

My mum’s gravy was thick but at least it moved about.

The room was thick with reporters.

We drove through thick fog.

He answered me in his characteristically thick Creole patois.

Greatly evocative of one's nationality or place of origin.

We had difficulty understanding him with his thick accent.

Difficult to understand, or poorly articulated.

He was as thick as two short planks.

They were as thick as thieves.

Jem is a tall, good-looking fellow, as old as I am, and that's twenty-one last birthday; we came into the office together years ago, and have been very thick ever since

1859, Thomas Hughes, The Scouring of the White Horse:

Thick darkness.

Thick prehistory also is interested in a much broader array of topics than the perennial sociological concern for how individuals relate to the collective and how social continuity and change occur in light of that relationship; thick prehistory addresses the social, biological, and psychological person.

2006, Christopher Carr, D. Troy Case, “The Gathering of Hopewell”, in Christopher Carr, D. Troy Case, editors, Gathering Hopewell: Society, Ritual, and Ritual Interaction, →ISBN, page 47:

A thick theory, such as libertarianism or socialism, is not appropriate as the basis for a constitution in a pluralistic society in which the people hold differing views about the good (or justice).

2013, John O. McGinnis, Michael B. Rappaport, Originalism and the Good Constitution, →ISBN, page 5:

Nor is his defence of market capitalism likely to persuade all his progressive friends, because no matter how much fairness is achieved through an application of the difference principle, they are reluctant to accept Tomasi’s defence of private property rights or a thick concept of economic freedom.

2021, Wanjiru Njoya, Economic Freedom and Social Justice: The Classical Ideal of Equality in Contexts of Racial Diversity, →ISBN, page 95:

(academic) Detailed and expansive; substantive.

"Of course I was eager to put her affairs in order," George told my father, "but I found it a bit thick when expected to pay for Lord Randolph Churchill's barouche purchased in the '80s."

1969, Anita Leslie, Lady Randolph Churchill, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 288:

Alternative forms: (Internet slang) thicc, thic

A word to the thick soul sistas, I want to get with ya

1991, “Baby Got Back”, in Mack Daddy, performed by Sir Mix-a-Lot:

(slang, chiefly of women) Curvy and voluptuous, and especially having large hips.

en-adj

thick (comparative thicker, superlative thickest)

thicker (comparative)
thickest (superlative)

абнатә

relatively great in extent from one surface to another

дебе́л

measuring a certain number of units in this dimension

неясен

difficult to understand, poorly articulated

From Middle English thikke, from Old English þicce (“thick, dense”), from Proto-West Germanic *þikkwī, from Proto-Germanic *þekuz (“thick”), from Proto-Indo-European *tégus (“thick”).
Cognates
Cognate with Danish tyk (“thick”), Dutch dik (“thick”), Faroese tjúkkur (“thick”), German dick (“thick”), Icelandic þykkur (“thick”), Norwegian Bokmål tykk (“thick”), Norwegian Nynorsk tjukk (“thick”), Saterland Frisian tjuk (“thick”), Swedish tjock (“thick”). Related to Old Irish tiug (“thick”) and Welsh tew (“thick”).


thick

Snow lay thick on the ground.

The arrows flew thick and fast around us.


thick

It was mayhem in the thick of battle.

He through a little window cast his sight / Through thick of bars, that gave a scanty light.

1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

The thickest, or most active or intense, part of something.

gloomy thicks

1612, Michael Drayton, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] [Humphrey Lownes] for M[athew] Lownes; I[ohn] Browne; I[ohn] Helme; I[ohn] Busbie, →OCLC:

Through the thicke they heard one rudely rush.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

If there was doctorates in bollocksology and scratching yourself in bed, the two of you'd be professors by now. Pair of loafing, idle thicks.

2014, Joseph O'Connor, The Thrill of It All, page 100:

vuur van de strijd

most active or intense part of something


thick

A wicked ambush , which lay hidden long In the close covert of her guilful eyen,
Thence breaking forth , did thick about me throng

1595, Edmunde Spenser [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “[Amoretti.] Sonnet VII”, in Amoretti and Epithalamion. […], London: […] [Peter Short] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC:

The nightmare Life-in-death was she, / Who thicks man's blood with cold.

1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, chapter 3, in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, lines 193–194:

(archaic, transitive, intransitive) To thicken.

en-verb

thick (third-person singular simple present thicks, present participle thicking, simple past and past participle thicked)

thicks (present singular third-person)
thicking (participle present)
thicked (participle past)
thicked (past)


thick

Themost wi egges an heimost wi thick,

1927, “ZONG OF TWI MAARKEET MOANS”, in THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD, page 129, line 3:

Thick besom fighed a spagh wi kick an a blaake,

1927, “ZONG OF TWI MAARKEET MOANS”, in THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD, page 129, line 5:

[The stupid kid figged the spoke], with a kick and a bleat,

Thou liest valse co secun that thou an ye thick

1927, “ZONG OF TWI MAARKEET MOANS”, in THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD, page 129, line 14:

You lie false, said the second, that you and your kid,