thick

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English thicke, from Old English þicce (“thick, dense”), from Proto-Germanic *þekuz (“thick”), from Proto-Indo-European *tégus (“thick”). 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”).

Pronunciation

Adjective

thick (comparative thicker, superlative thickest)

  1. Relatively great in extent from one surface to the opposite in its smallest solid dimension.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 17, in The China Governess‎:
      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. […].
  2. Measuring a certain number of units in this dimension.
    I want some planks that are two inches thick.
  3. Heavy in build; thickset.
    • 2007, James T. Knight, Queen of the Hustle
      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.
    • 2009, Kenny Attaway, Nuthouse Love, page 82:
      JJ loved “average hood girls”, Cody loved dark-skinned thick girls and Mooch lusted for yellow-boned skinny woman.
    He had such a thick neck that he had to turn his body to look to the side.
  4. Densely crowded or packed.
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 3, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      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.
    We walked through thick undergrowth.
  5. Having a viscous consistency.
    My mum’s gravy was thick but at least it moved about.
  6. Abounding in number.
    The room was thick with reporters.
  7. Impenetrable to sight.
    We drove through thick fog.
  8. Difficult to understand, or poorly articulated.
    We had difficulty understanding him with his thick accent.
  9. (informal) Stupid.
    He was as thick as two short planks.
  10. (informal) Friendly or intimate.
    They were as thick as thieves.
    • (Can we date this quote?) T. Hughes
      We have been thick ever since.
  11. Deep, intense, or profound.
    Thick darkness.
  12. (Britain, dated) troublesome; unreasonable
    • 1969 Anita Leslie, Lady Randolph Churchill, New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, page 288:
      "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."
  13. (slang, chiefly of women) Curvy and voluptuous, and especially having large hips.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms
terms derived from thick (adjective)

Translations

Adverb

thick (comparative thicker, superlative thickest)

  1. In a thick manner.
    Snow lay thick on the ground.
  2. Frequently or numerously.
    The arrows flew thick and fast around us.

Translations

Noun

thick (plural thicks)

  1. The thickest, or most active or intense, part of something.
    It was mayhem in the thick of battle.
    • Dryden
      He through a little window cast his sight / Through thick of bars, that gave a scanty light.
  2. A thicket.
    • Drayton
      gloomy thicks
    • Spenser
      Through the thick they heard one rudely rush.
  3. (slang) A stupid person; a fool.
    • 2014, Joseph O'Connor, The Thrill of It All, page 100:
      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.

Derived terms

Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

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

  1. (archaic, transitive, intransitive) To thicken.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Edmund Spenser to this entry?)

Synonyms
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