thickening

thicken +‎ -ing

thickening (countable and uncountable, plural thickenings)

1. The process of making something, or becoming, thick or viscous.
2. A substance, usually a source of starch, used to thicken a sauce.
3. A thickened part of a structure.
   • 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 6:

     […] the inner layer (of nearly equally large cells) lacks the regular semiannular or annular thickenings of most other leafy liverworts […]

   • 1902, Edwin Hurry Fenwick, Obscure Diseases of the Urethra, page 30:

     They disappear at once on slightly relaxing the air-pressure, whilst true incipient thickenings of the surface remain white and unpliably stiff.

thickening

1. present participle of thicken

• kitchening