thick adj.
1. in senses of SE thick-headed.
(a) stupid, dull, foolish; often as thick as... adj. (1) .
 | (trans.) Erasmus Praise of Folie (1509) 40: On the other syde, who woulde not sooner preferre any one chosen euin amonges the thickest of the people? who beying a foole, could aptly either gouerne, or obey fooles, please the myndes of suche as be lyke vnto him, whiche is the moste parte. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Every Man Out of his Humour II i: I think he feeds her with porridge, [...] she could never have such a thick brain else. | |
| Answer to Dolman iv M: I omit your thicke error in putting no difference betweene a magistrate and a king . | |
| Spanish Curate V i: A thick ram-headed Knave. | |
| Liberty of Conscience v n.p.: What if you think our reasons thick, and our ground of separation. | |
| Proceedings Old Bailey 30 May 62/2: He said, d – n the D – of C – , his h – was too thick to take it in. | |
| Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 151: Would Jove to all the rest assign / Noddles but half as thick as thine. | |
| ‘More Money’ Works (1794) III 137: Thick as may be the head of poor John Bull, The beast hath got some brains within his skull. | |
| Sporting Mag. Apr. XVI 44/1: ‘Here comes paper-skull.’ – ‘Who do you call paper-skull? [...] my head is as thick as any of yours!’. | |
| Gypsey of the Glen I iii: Run your thick heads into halters. | |
| Navy at Home II 138: A professed passer of midshipmen’s, who undertook [...] to knock a given quantity of navigation into the skulls of these grown up gentlemen, let them be ever so thick. | |
| ‘Anecdotes of British Lawyers’ Town Talk 8 Aug. 203: No more than one idea could ever stay in his thick head at a time. | |
| School-Life at Winchester College (1870) 238: Thick – Stupid. | |
| Sheffield Gloss. 255: Thick, dull stupid. | |
| ‘’Arry in ’Arrygate’ Punch 24 Sept. 133/2: He seemed jest a bit thick. | |
| Gem 16 Mar. 2: Your grey matter, meaning your thick head! | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘Excess Baggage’ Score by Innings (2004) 397: I must have been pretty thick, because I didn’t tumble at first. | |
| Three Soldiers 19: Run around the room a little . . . No, not that way. Just a little so I can test yer heart . . . God, these rookies are thick. | |
| One-Way Ride 62: Polack Joe, ‘a little thick in the head,’ as Police Captain John Stege described him. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Tarry Flynn (1965) 147: ‘He’s a very thick man,’ said Tarry. ‘He’s a hasty man, ‘ said Petey, ‘but I wouldn’t say he’s a thick man.’. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Scholarly Mouse and other Tales 62: There must be a safe way if I’m not too thick in the nut. | |
| Saved Scene vii: He goes we’re ’ere, the thick bastard, an’ lets ’em in. | |
| Where Have All the Soldiers Gone 25: ‘He was kinda thick. Out here you can’t be too dumb’. | |
| Family Arsenal 31: You’re really thick – you shouldn’t have told me that. | |
| GBH 184: ‘You fucking thick copper’. | |
| Tin Wife 65: Don’t piss an unlimited career away by acting like a thick Mick. | |
| Llama Parlour 118: If you need something large and thick in your life, why doncha just go to bed with, I dunno, a phone book. | |
| (con. 1944) Prince Charming 54: You’re thicker than you sound, lad. | |
| Beyond Black 180: She was a bit thick, wasn’t she? [...] She didn’t get any exams in school. | |
| (con. 1973) Johnny Porno 309: You’re thick [...] Stubborn like his father. | |
| Rough Trade [ebook] ‘Are you fucking thick?’. | |
| Rules of Revelation 254: I’m trying to play thick then, like, Wha’? and he goes, ‘Rocky, don’t be acting the bollocks’. |
(b) dull-headed, ‘dopey’.
| Nonsense 53: One night I felt a little thick, and went to the buttery for the gin bottle! |
(c) drunken.
| ‘Black Jack’ Soldiers Three (1907) 106: I made feign to be far gone in dhrink an’ [...] I went away, walkin’ thick an’ heavy. | |
| ‘A Consistent Consort’ Sporting Times 13 June 1/3: When he’s ‘squiffy,’ my word! he’s sufficiently thick, / But when sober he’s quite as opaque. | |
| Bulldog Drummond 196: Looks like a boozing den after a thick night. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | N.Z. Truth 29 Apr. 1/8: They drink till they’re thick in the head. | |
| Cloven Hoof 153: You look a bit under the weather; have a thick night? |
2. in senses of lit. or fig. closeness.
(a) close, intimate; often as thick as... adj. (2)
| Refusal 42: Since our Men of Quality are got so thick into Change-Alley, who knows but in time a great Man’s Word may go as far as a Tradesman’s? | |
| in Literary Anecd. 18th C. (1812) II 70: We begin now, though contrary to my expectation, and without my seeking, to be pretty thick; and I thank God who reconciles me to my adversaries . | |
| Belle’s Stratagem III ii: Sally is very thick with Mr. Gibson, Sir George’s gentleman. | |
| Dialect of Craven. | |
| Oliver Twist (1966) 388: Yer a very nice man, and I’m very fond of yer; but we ain’t quite so thick together, as all that comes to. | |
| Pierce Fenning 41: You and the Britisher seem to be pretty thick! | |
| Digby Grand (1890) 23: Major O’Toole [...] warned me repeatedly that I was ‘much too thick with Miss Jones.’. | |
| Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 22 Nov. n.p.: A negro woman; she is very thick with her. | |
| Artemus Ward, His Book 69: Our parents (Betsy’s and mine) slept reglarly every Sunday in the same meetin house, and the nabers used to obsarve, ‘How thick the Wards and Peasleys air!’. | |
| Sl. Dict. | |
| Duke’s Children (1954) 370: That fellow Tregear, who is so thick with Silverbridge. | |
| ‘In the Guards!’ in Mr Punch’s Model Music Hall 75: With duchesses I’m ’and in glove, with countesses I’m thick. | |
| Coburg Leader (Vic.) 17 Aug. 1/5: Union Jack and Footscray Harry are not very thick now. | |
| Family Connections 11: Why do you think they are so thick with thepevuliar people to be met with in your house at time. | |
| Abner Daniel 212: Fincher’s his best friend [...] an’ they are mighty thick. | |
| Rigby’s Romance (1921) Ch. xxx: 🌐 Presently I got thick with Nora again. | |
| Jim of the Ranges 23: He’s not the sort for you to get thick with. | |
| ‘Ivy Day in the Committee Room’ Dubliners (1956) 124: Fanning and himself seem to me very thick. They’re often in Kavanagh’s together. | |
| Black Mask Aug. III 46: We had been through training camp together [...] and were pretty thick, being from the same city. | |
| Hungry Men 171: He was too thick with the niggers, though. He treated them like they was white. | |
| Sparkling Cyanide (1955) 104: They were pretty thick at the office and there’s an idea there that she was keen on him. | |
| ‘Hunter Trials’ in Coll. Poems (1959) 237: Miss Blewitt says Monica threw it, / But Monica says it was Joan, / And Joan’s very thick with Miss Blewitt, / So Monica’s sulking alone. | |
| Semi-Tough 131: Rudi Tambunga is very thick with the owners of the dog-ass Jets, the Mastrioni brothers. | |
| Outside In I i: I saw you thick with that kid. | |
| Golden Orange (1991) 273: They were thick, those two! | |
| Sucked In 41: ‘They were pretty thick, were they?’ ‘Chalk and cheese [...] Mortal enemies’. | |
| ‘Sunset’ in Broken 181: [T]hey’re thick, tight together, in the way that people who trust each with their lives in deep water are. |
(b) (US campus) emotionally involved, romantically attached.
| Iron Man 50: I didn’t know you managers liked to have your boys thick with women. | |
| Shearer’s Colt 26: Maggie’s the girl who works there, and she and I used to be pretty thick. | |
| N.Y. Amsterdam News 12 Feb. 7/1: Off-beat throbbings maintain that Charley (Savoy) Buchanan’s secretary and the Harlem club operator are mightee theeck! | |
| Blow Negative! 245: I thought you two were pretty thick. | |
| ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 68: That couple is really thick. |
3. unacceptable due to its excess, too much to handle; usu. in phr. a bit thick.
| Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Jul. 14/4: Lord Shaftsbury said of the teachers of the early Ragged Schools that they were ‘men and woman [...] who […] devoted themselves to the work in a real spirit of martyrdom which they would not find in all the history of Popish religion.’ This is rather ‘too thick.’. | |
| Birmingham Dly Post 31 Mar. 3/4: [H]e unravelled such a ‘yarn’ that even the good man [...] deemed it rather ‘thick’. | |
| Hooligan Nights 14: Giving mugs and other barmy sots the push [...] when their swank got a bit too thick. | |
| Mop Fair 201: Strike me up a plum tree, this is too, too thick! | |
| Thirty-Nine Steps (1930) 126: ‘O Lord,’ said the young man. ‘This is a bit too thick.’. | |
| Roman Hat Mystery 133: Really, now, old chap, that’s a bit thick. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Hotspur 11 Jan. 47: It’s a bit thick that we’ve already lost more of our regular team through mumps than the other Houses. | |
| Otterbury Incident 100: It was a bit thick – the line Toppy was taking with Ted. | |
| ‘The North-west Ladies’ West Coast Stories 160: It is a bit thick to swallow, isn’t it? | |
| Jeeves in the Offing 82: A bit thick. | |
| Wake in Fright [ebook] ‘I don’t pay for any of the beer I drink.’ Grant didn’t quite know how to react, so he just said: ‘Don’t you?’ ‘I could get yours free too, but it’d be making it a bit thick, wouldn’t it’. | |
| Much Obliged, Jeeves 94: ‘This is a bit thick, what,’ I said. | |
| Van (1998) 354: I’m to do the sink an’ the washin’ machine but I’m not goin’ to. It’s thick. | |
| (con. 1960s) London Blues 280: But doing it with a couple of niggers . . . that’s a bit thick, isn’t it? |
4. intense; dedicated.
| ‘Bai Jove’ 🎵 At Billiards, we’re thick’uns, you bet, boys, / Pool and Pyramids too are our pride. | |
| [perf. Vesta Tilley] My Friend the Major 🎵 Very thick at Baccarat. | |
| Hooligan Nights 43: Not wivout giving ’em somefink thick in the way of slanging. | |
| Marvel 12 Nov. 7: Nibbley’s a thick ’un – a dead wrong ’un, Nibbley is. | |
| Cockney At Home 68: I can’t quite call to mind what ’appened arter that – not clearly, I mean. It got so thick. And I mixed it crool. | |
| Tragic Magic 143: The tension in prison is so thick you can cut it with a knife. |
5. of an accent, very strong.
| (con. 1875) Cruise of the ‘Cachalot’ 329: A man—short, tubby, with [...] a brogue thick as pea-soup. | |
| Woodfill of the Regulars 15: My mother’s folks were Germans, and talked with an accent so darn thick sometimes we couldn’t tell what it was all about. | |
| (con. 1940s) Sowers of the Wind 120: ‘What’s them bastards allowed in here for, anyway?’ [...] It was the voice of an American, thick with drink and hatred. | |
| IV Dress Gray (1979) 298: He’s got an accent so fuckin’ thick. | |
| (con. 1920s) Emerald Square 61: He hated Dublin kids, who jeered him behind his back, imitating his country accent, thick as pig’s muck. |
6. (US black) in senses of quantity or quality.
(a) (US) substantial in number.
| Central Record (Lancaster, KY) 16 Aug. 1/4: ‘Dope’ Fiends Thick. Itis said that fifty per cent of the negros on Battle Row are addicted to the use of cocaine. | |
| Sun (NY) 27 July 40/1: They were thick as quick lunches all along the side streets. | |
| ‘My Philosophy’ 🎵 My posse from the Bronx is thick / and we’re real live. | |
| ‘African Connection’ 🎵 More brothers come about, try to scheme slick / But the Native Tongue's thick / Lick ’em real good. |
(b) extremely drunken.
| ‘We Haven’t Got a Hope’ in Airman’s Song Book (1945) 59: I’d had a thick night and a very sore head. |
(c) (UK/US black) of a woman, physically attractive.
| Campus Sl. Apr. 10: thick – having a good figure. Said of a female. | |
| ‘Life Is 2009’ 🎵 Keep a bad yella bitch and a thick young brown. | |
| Girl Wide Web 2.0 61: Black adolescent boys prefer shapely and ‘thick girls’ [...] By emphasizing ‘thickness’ [...] the girls in NevaEvaLand have over turned the White beauty ideal in favour of a more realistic view of body image based on the cultural ideas of beauty valued in Black culture. | |
| ‘Kash Doll Speaks pt 1’ 🎵 Small waist, thick as hell, nigga look at the butt / Got them D’s up top, nigga look at the cup. | |
| What They Was 38: Twerking contest full of thick chicks in a club. |
(d) of a man, having a large penis.
| Black Talk. |
(e) (US campus) overweight.
| Da Bomb 🌐 29: Thick: Heavy, overweight. | |
| Campus Sl. Apr. |
(f) used of objects or people, displaying wealth [i.e. a thick roll of cash].
| Source Aug. 144: Snoop’s house is so thick, you have to hold your gin and juice above your head so as not to spill it. |
In compounds
see separate entries.
see separate entry.
In phrases
see separate entry.
confused, at a loss for coherence.
| ‘’Arry in ’Arrygate’ Punch 24 Sept. 133/2: He seemed jest a bit thick in the clear. | |
| ‘’Arriet on Labour’ Punch 26 Aug. 88/1: Bit bosky, Sam, thick in the clear, as usual on Saint Monday. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
1. in fig. use, a thug, thus adj. pertaining to thuggery, the underworld.
| Mirror of Life 6 Jan. 4: [pic. caption] On His Muscle. / The Thick Ear Racket Don’t Go. | |
| Yorks. Eve. Post 15 Sept. 3/6: Thick Ear Melodrama. Victor McLagan’s New Film ‘The River Pirate’ [...] It is just ‘thick ear’ melodrama. | |
| Northern Whig 16 Aug. 3/2: Death of Colonel C. McNeile. The Creator of ‘Bulldog Drummond’. Thick-Ear Drama. | |
| Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 114: What you got — a few hundred quid? That’s enough to buy a thick-ear like me, I suppose? |
2. an ear that has swollen up after a blow; usu. in phr. give someone a thick ear.
| Sporting Times 24 Feb. 1/2: That’s ’ow I got this thick ear! | |
| Magnet 10 Sept. 2: That sort of talk will get you a thick ear. | |
| Aussie (France) 8 Oct. 3/2: ‘Gie me none o’ yer cheek, my lad, or I’ll gie ye a crack!’ / ‘Garn! Harry Lauder, I’ll open a fresh box of thick ears, and pass you one!’. | |
| [perf. Jay Laurier] ‘And It Was’ 🎵 She said, ‘It’s me husband’ I felt rather blue / And she said, ‘That’s the sign for a thick ear for you’. | |
| Ulysses 546: He doesn’t half want a thick ear, the blighter. Biff him one, Harry. | |
| Essex Newsman 15 Apr. 4/7: ‘What is a thick ear?’ Judge Crawford asked [...] He is informed by counsel that it was a boxing term. | |
| Aberdeen Jrnl 19 Sept. 1/4: He would not cast odium on women’s demands, he confessed ‘ might get a thick ear’. | |
| Quare Fellow (1960) Act I: I’ll wave you a thick ear. | |
| Bang To Rights 165: If they see anyone hurting [an animal] that person has a good chance of getting a thick earhole. | |
| Teems of Times and Happy Returns 44: But the scar added a terrible ha ha hee, and usually earned Grinner an undeserved thick ear. | |
| Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 83: Most of the barmen that I had any dealings with would give you a thick ear as soon as look at you. | |
| (con. 1930s) Emerald Square 114: They had an ‘oul fella’ who gave them a thick ear and sometimes a penny. | |
| How to Shoot Friends 71: I’ve had my head punched in so many times that I would get a thick ear, if I had one left, just listening to it all. |
the larger portion.
| Dict. Archaic and Provincial Words II 864/1: thick end. A considerable part [...] ‘The thick-end of a mile.’ Linc. | |
| Huddersfield Chron. 22 Dec. 4/6: The Thin — And the thick End of the Wedge into the tenant-Right Interest. | |
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 13 Apr. 6/5: His [...] lady mother has had the thick end of every ‘bundle’ her brave son has won. | |
| Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 243/2: Thick end of a hundred years (Yorks.). Nearly a century. | |
| Sphere (London) 2 Nov. 10/4: These heroes who are gone to bring light to us that sit in darkneess here at the thick-end of the loud speaker. | |
| Tatler (London) 25 May 16: It ought not to be necessary [...] to issue any other kind of weather report. We have had the thick end of eighteen months of it. | |
| Scotsman 2 Apr. 6/6: ‘To introduce compulsion of minorities into England [will] prrove to be driving the wedge in thick-end first’. | |
| Jimmy Brockett 205: All right, Jimmy, we’ve sold you forward. [...] You’ve had the thick end of the stick all along — now it’s our turn. | |
| (trans.) Big Show 165: Fagged out, dead beat, nerves in tatters [...] we always got the thick end of the stick. | |
| Frying-Pan 60: They’ll tell you how many officers have applied for transfers [...] It’s the thick end of ninety since I came. |
a navvy.
| Satirist (London) 28 Oct. 346/2: [used insultingly to a woman] I be rich man. l’ve de monish in de Bank, more den 5l. You be de teef, old thick leg (a laugh). | |
| Life and Work among Navvies 43: Navvies themselves speak of one another as ‘muck-shifters,’ or ‘thick-legs.’. | |
| Secrets of Tramp Life Revealed 3: Labourers, navvies, or ‘Thick Legged Ones.’. | |
| (con. 1850s) Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 161: Pinchers or Thick-legs – who made the first Australian railway in the early Fifties. |
a minor beating, lit. a lip that has swollen up after receiving a blow.
| ‘Mae West in “The Hip Flipper”’ [comic strip] in Tijuana Bibles (1997) 100: He tried to drag Lotta up into the hay-loft and got a thick lip for his efforts. | |
| Crumple Zone 180: Alv din get no beatin’, just a thick lip. |
very stupid.
| Ulysses 311: The curse of a goodfornothing God light sideways on the bloody thicklugged sons of whores’ get! |
a large, thuggish person.
| Psmith Journalist (1993) 320: ‘Kid’s right,’ said thick-neck number one. | |
| (con. 1900s) Elmer Gantry 49: One of those thick-necks that was born husky and tries to make you think he made himself husky by prayer and fasting. | |
| On the Waterfront (1964) 41: Truck [...] wasn’t satisfied just being a thickneck and had to double as a comedian. |
see thick ’un n.
(UK prison) food.
| Leaves from a Prison Diary I 161: Millbank for thick shins and graft at the pump; / Broadmoor for all laggs as go off their chump. | |
| Twenty-Five Years of Detective Life II 186: Millbank for thick shins [...] Brixton for good toke. |
a fool.
| Of Virgil his Æneis ded. to Dvnsayne: What thinck you of thee thick skyn, that made this for a fare wel for his mystresse vpon his departure from Abintowne? |
stupid, foolish; also as adv.; thus thick-skull/thick-scull n., a fool.
| Sir Martin Mar-all I i: Now will this thick-scull’d Master of mine tell the whole Story to his Rival. | |
| Epsom Wells I i: That men should be such infinite Coxcombs to live scurvily to get a reputation among thick-scull’d Peasants. | |
| Erasmus Colloquies 100: I should hammer it into the heads of those thick-skull’d Courtiers. | |
| Love for Love IV i: Why, you thick-sculled rascal, I tell you the farce is done. | |
| Memoirs (1714) 13: Mud, a Fool, or Thick-scul Fellow. | |
| Artifice Act III: Ha, Thickscull! [...] Why you Thickscull’d Rascal! – You unthinking Dolt! | |
| The Quaker’s Opera III ii: Oh you Thick-skull! | |
| Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 21: Then I hope you’ll hang yourself / For being such a thick-skull’d elf. | |
| Yankey in London 160: Dutch scoundrel, French coward, and German thick-scull are familiar in his abuse. | |
| Scots Mag. 1 June 5/2: He had the assurance to spit in my face and call me a thick-skulled booby! | |
| Royal Cornwall Gaz. 19 May 4/4: Some thick-sculled bigots gravely asserted, that it was invented by a Jesuit. | |
| Cork Examiner 3 July 1/5: The Orangemen [...] are a set of ‘thick-sculled unpurchaseable fellows’ who defy him in everything. | |
| Westmorland Gaz. 6 Mar. 7/3: Thank God we shall no longer have the impenetrable, thick-sculled stupidity of Sir Charles Wood to contend with. | |
| Bradford Obs. 26 Feb. 7/4: The councillor and aldermen may rest assured that they are far too heavy and thick-sculled for the purpose. | |
| Reynolds’ Newspaper (London) 19 Sept. 4/6: Their resolutions are worthy of reproduction, if only to show what thick-skulled boobies and brainless bores are elected. | |
| Cornishmen 4 Mar. 4/5: At the Port he had some old birds who are not to be caught by chaff [...] nor yet so ‘thick-skulled,’ as Pat says. | |
| Indianpolis News (IN) 6 Sept. 4/2: Just like cheap white men, there may be ‘thick-skulled nergroes’ claiming so much influence. | |
| Dundee Courier 5 May 4/3: The thick-skulled Councillors were not awar of any attack on it before, and some of the denser are not aware of it yet. | |
| Northants Eve. Teleg. 23 Aug. 4/2: ‘What an imbecile,’ exclaimed the former. ‘It is the folly of this thick-skulled nation,’ agreed the Secretary. | |
| Bar-20 Days 43: You dod-blasted, thick-sculled wooden-heads. | |
| Morn. Post 9 Feb. 4/3: Ours is no common parish, ours is a thick-skulled thinking, and provident committee. | |
| Dead End Act II: drina, quietly: I ain’t no Red. policeman, thick-skulled: Well you talk like one. | |
| Capt. Bulldog Drummond 112: How [...] is our worthy but thick-skulled friend going to settle that burning question for us? |
see separate entry.
In phrases
(US black) stylish nylon socks, usu. black or brown.
| Black Jargon in White America 82: thick ’n thins n. a type of nylon socks, commonly worn and considered stylish by many black men. |