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Thick and thin. Whatever is in the way. 
Through perils both of wind and limb, 
Through thick and thin she followed him. Hudihras. 
THICK, adv. [It is not always easy to distinguish the ad¬ 
verb from the adjective.] Frequently; fast. 
’Tis some disaster. 
Or else he would not send so thick. Denham. 
Closely. 
The neighbouring plain with arms is cover’d o’er; 
The vale an iron harvest seems to yield. 
Of thick sprung lances in a waving field. Dry den. 
To a great depth.—If you apply it thick spread, it will eat 
to the bone. Wiseman. 
Thick and threefold. In quick succession; in great 
numbers.—They came thick and threefold for a time, till 
one experienced stager discovered the plot. L'Estrange. 
To THICK, v. n. To grow dense. 
But see, the welkin thicks apace, 
And stooping Phoebus steeps his face: 
It’s time to haste us homeward. Spenser. 
To THICKEN, v. a. [tSiccian, Sax.] To make thick. 
To make close; to fill up interstices.—Waters evaporated 
and mounted up into the air, thicken and cool it. Wood- 
i ward. —To condense; to make to concrete.—The white of 
an egg gradually dissolves by heat, exceeding a little the 
heat of a human body; a greater degree of heat will thicken 
it into a white, dark-coloured, dry, viscous mass. Ar- 
buthnot. —To strengthen; to confirm. 
’Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream ; 
And this may help to thicken other proofs. 
That do demonstrate thinly. Shakspeare. 
To make frequent. To make close or numerous; as, to 
thicken the ranks. 
To THI'CKEN, v. n. To grow thick. To grow dense 
or muddy. 
Thy lustre thickens 
When he shines by. Shakspeare. 
To concrete; to be consolidated. 
Water stopt gives birth 
To grass and plants, and thickens into earth. Prior. 
To grow close or numerous. 
The press of people thickens to the court. 
The impatient crowd devouring the report. Dry den. 
To grow quick. 
The combat thickens, like the storm that flies 
From westward when the showery scuds arise. 
Or pattering hail comes pouring on the main, 
When Jupiter descends in harden’d rain. Dryden. 
THI'CKET, s. [Siccecte, Saxon.] A close knot or tuft 
of trees; a close wood or copse. 
I drew you hither, 
Into the chiefest thicket of the park. Shakspeare. 
THICKLEY, a hamlet of England, in the county of 
Durham ; 4 miles south-east of Bishops Auckland. 
THI'CKLY, adv. [Siclice, Sax.] Deeply; to a great 
quantity.— Mending cracked receivers, having thickly over¬ 
laid them with diachylon, we could not perceive leaks. 
Boyle. —Closely; in quick succession. 
THI'CKNESS, s. The state of being thick; density. 
Quantity of matter interposed; space taken up by matter in¬ 
terposed.—In the darkened room, against the hole at which 
the light entered, I could easily see through the whole thick¬ 
ness of my hand the motions of a body placed beyond it. 
Boyle. —Quantity laid on quantity to some considerable 
depth.—Poll a tree, and cover it some thickness with clay 
on the top, and see what it will put forth. Bacon.— Con¬ 
sistence; grossness; not rareness; spissitude.—Nitre mingled 
with water to the thickness of honey, and anointed on the 
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bud after the vine is cut, it will sprout forth. Bacon.— Im¬ 
perviousness ; closeness.—The banks of the river and the 
thickness of the shades drew into them all the birds of the 
country. Addison. —Want of sharpness; want of quick¬ 
ness.—A person found in himself, being at some times sub¬ 
ject to a thickness of hearing, the like effect. Holder .— 
What you write is printed in large letters; otherwise between 
the weakness of my eyes and thickness of hearing, I should 
lose the greatest pleasure. Swift. 
THI'CKSCULL, s. A dolt; a blockhead. Johnson. 
THI'CKSCULLED, adj. Dull; stupid. 
They’re pleas’d to hear their thickscull'd judges cry. 
Well mov’d ! oh finely said ! Dryden. 
. THI'CKSET, adj. Close planted. 
His eye-balls glare with fire, suffus’d with blood, 
His neck shoots up a thickset thorny wood; 
His bristled back a trench impal’d appears. 
And stands erected, like a field of spears. Dryden. 
THI'CKSKIN, s. A coarse gross man, a numscull. 
The shallowest thickskin of that barren sort. 
Who Pyramus presented in their sport, 
Forsook his scene and enter’d in a brake. Shakspeare . 
THICKTHORN, a hamlet of England, in the parish of 
Hetherset, Norfolk. 
THIEF, s. [thiubs, Goth.; tiiep, $eop, Saxon; dief, 
Dutch. It was anciently written thieof and so appear¬ 
ed to have been of two syllables; thie was wont to be 
taken for thrift, so that thie of is he that takes of or from a 
man his thie, that is, his thrift or means whereby he thrives. 
Dr. Johnson. —Wachter and Serenius derive it from the 
Goth, thiwe, or thive, a servant; and illustrate this deriva¬ 
tion by the analogy of the Latin fur, which meant a servant 
before it meant a thief. The Germ, dieb is both a male or 
female servant, and a thief. The reason, Wachter says, of 
transferring the sense, was because, in ancient times, servants 
were generally thieves.] One who takes what belongs to 
another: the thief steals by secrecy, and the robber by vio¬ 
lence ; but these senses are often confounded.—Take heed, 
have open eye; for thieves do foot by night. Shakspeare. 
—An excrescence in the snuff of a candle.—Where you see 
a thief in the candle, call presently for an extinguisher. Bp. 
Hall. 
THIEF-CATCHER, Thief-leader, or Thief-taker, s. 
One whose business is to detect thieves, and bring them to 
justice.—A wolf passed by as the thief-leaders were drag¬ 
ging a fox to execution. L’Estrange. 
THIEL, a neat little town of the Netherlands, the capital 
of a district in the province of Gelde'rland, situated in a fer¬ 
tile country, near the great river Waal. It has 4100 inha¬ 
bitants, employed partly in manufactures, partly in a traffic 
in corn and provisions; 18 miles west of Nimeguen, and 20 
south-east of Utrecht. 
THIELT, a considerable town of the Netherlands, in the 
province of West Flanders, situated at the foot of an emi¬ 
nence, with a castle, and 9800 inhabitants; 18 miles west- 
south-west of Ghent. 
THIEMENDORF, a large village of Prussian Silesia, near 
Lowenberg, with 1200 inhabitants. 
THIENGEN, a small town of the west of Germany, in 
Baden, formerly the capital of the district called theClettgau. 
Population 900; 18 miles west of Schaffhausen, and 3 east of 
Waldshut. 
THIERS, a considerable town of France, in Auvergne, in 
the department of the Puy de Dome, situated on the declivity 
of a hill, watered by the small river Durolle, It has a popu¬ 
lation of 10,600. The buildings in the outskirts of the town 
have a pleasing appearance, being painted in fresco in the 
Italian style; but the interior presents nothing but dark, 
crowded, and winding streets, bordered with gloomy and ill 
built houses; 22 miles east of Riom, and 25 east-by-north of 
Clermont. Lat. 45. 52. N. long. 3. 38. E. 
THIERSTEIN, a small town of Germany, in Bavaria, 
principality 
