Contents
- 1 English
- 1.1 Alternative forms
- 1.2 Etymology
- 1.3 Adjective
- 1.3.1 Translations
- 1.4 Noun
- 1.5 References
- 1.6 Anagrams
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
- thick-set
Etymology[edit]
thick + set
Adjective[edit]
thickset (comparative more thickset, superlative most thickset)
- Having a relatively short, heavy build.
- Synonyms: big-boned, stocky, stout; see also Thesaurus:obese
- Antonyms: sleek, slender, slim, svelte, willowy
a thickset, muscular figure
a thickset workhorse
1654, Samuel Clarke, “The Life of Theodore Beza”, in The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History[2], London: T.V, page 885:
He was a thick set man, and of a strong Constitution […]
1748, [Tobias Smollett], chapter 8, in The Adventures of Roderick Random.[…], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] [William Strahan] for J. Osborn[…], →OCLC, page 52:
[…] he directed me to a small chink in the board partition, through which I could see a thick set brawny fellow, with a fierce countenance,
1820, [Walter Scott], chapter VII, in The Abbot.[…], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown,[…]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne,[…], →OCLC, page 146:
Ralph, who was a thickset clownish figure, arrived at his full strength, and conscious of the most complete personal superiority, laughed contemptuously at the threats of the slight-made stripling.
1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter 41, in Middlemarch[…], volumes (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book IV:
The contrast was as striking as it could have been eighteen years before, when Rigg was a most unengaging kickable boy, and Raffles was the rather thick-set Adonis of bar-rooms and back-parlors.
1926, Nalbro Bartley, chapter 1, in Her Mother’s Daughter[3], New York: George H. Doran:
More than ever Min hated her own thickset, healthy body, her round, red face with its small gray eyes, the mop of auburn hair which Aunt Julie braided so tightly […]
1952, Nikos Kazantzakis, chapter 1, in Carl Wildman, transl., Zorba the Greek, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, translation of Βίος και πολιτεία του Αλέξη Ζορμπά [Víos kai politeía tou Aléxi Zormpá], →ISBN, page 3:
The glass door opened and there entered a thick-set, mud-bespattered, weather-beaten dock laborer with bare head and bare feet.
1970, Saul Bellow, chapter 6, in Mr. Sammler’s Planet[4], Penguin, published 1977, page 279:
Things edible would always be respected by a man who had nearly starved to death. The laborers, too, in white smocks, broad and heavy, a thickset personnel, butchers’ men.
1989, Oscar Hijuelos, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 4:
Standing in her entrance, two men in white silk suits and butterfly-looking lace bow ties, black instrument cases by their side and black-brimmed white hats in their hands–my father, Nestor Castillo, thin and broad-shouldered, and Uncle Cesar, thickset and immense.
- Densely crowded together; made up of things that are densely crowded together; closely planted.
- Synonyms: dense, thick
- Antonyms: sparse, thin
a thickset wood
a thickset hedge
- 1581, Thomas Newton (translator), Thebais in Seneca His Tenne Tragedies, London: Thomas Marsh, Act 2, p.48,[5]
- […] let me be allowde
- To lurke behinde this Craggy Rocke, or els my selfe to hyde
- On backside of some thickset hedge:
- 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, London: M. Lownes et al., Song 1, p.11,[6]
- […] Corineus ran
- With slaughter through the thick-set squadrons of the foes;
1635, John Taylor, The olde, old, very olde man: or the age and long life of Thomas Par[7], London: Henry Gosson:
[…] though his Beard not oft corrected,
Yet neare it growes, not like a Beard neglected
From head to heele, his body hath all over,
A Quick-set, Thick-set nat’rall hairy cover.
1696, Jane Leade, “Solomon’s Porch: or the Beautiful Gate of Wisdom’s Temple”, in A Fountain of Gardens[8], London:
The beauteous Love-Eye burning in the Heart;
From whence Loves Centres endless multiply,
As thick-set Spangles of the Sky,
Raising a Sting of Joy in ev’ry Part.
1700, “Meleager and Atalanta, Out of the Eighth Book of Ovid’s Metamorphosis”, in John Dryden, transl., Fables Ancient and Modern[9], London: Jacob Tonson, page 106:
His [the boar’s] Neck shoots up a thick-set thorny Wood;
His bristled Back a Trench impal’d appears,
And stands erected, like a Field of Spears.
1862, Christina Rossetti, “A Birthday”, in Goblin Market and Other Poems[10], London: Macmillan, page 56:
My heart is like an appletree
Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;
1950, Mervyn Peake, chapter 77, in Gormenghast, London: Eyre and Spottiswoode:
It was for the arc of lanterned boats to close in and to form the thickset audience, armed and impenetrable.
- Densely covered (with something).
a gully thickset with brambles
- 1583, John Foxe, Acts and Monuments, London: John Day, Book 4, “The tragicall historie of Gregorie the vij. otherwise named Hildebrand,” p.177,[11]
- […] in a vessell being thick set with sharpe nayles, he tormented him to the poynt of death:
1660, Nathaniel Ingelo, Bentivolio and Urania[12], London: Richard Marriot, Book 3, p. 134:
The sides of the Church were so thick set with Pictures, that it seem’d to be made in imitation of Plato’s Den, where one could see nothing but shadowes.
1908, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 4, in Anne of Green Gables[13]:
A huge cherry-tree grew outside, so close that its boughs tapped against the house, and it was so thick-set with blossoms that hardly a leaf was to be seen.
1929, Carl Grabo, chapter 7, in The Cat in Grand-Father’s House[14], Chicago: Laidlaw Brothers, page 99:
[…] he came to the house of the King of the Gnomes, which was inside a mountain and as thickset with jewels as the grass with dew on a fine morning.
Translations[edit]
having a short heavy build or stature
- Bulgarian: набит(bg) (nabit)
- Finnish: pönäkkä
- German: untersetzt(de), dicht(de)
- Hungarian: zömök(hu)
- Italian: tozzo(it)
- Kabuverdianu: rokotó
- Maori: pūngerungeru
- Ottoman Turkish: یوغون (yoğun)
- Turkish: tıknaz(tr), tıkız(tr)
- Yoruba: síngbọnlẹ̀
closely planted
- Bulgarian: гъсто засаден (gǎsto zasaden)
Noun[edit]
thickset (countable and uncountable, plural thicksets)
- (countable, obsolete) A thick hedge.
- 1858, Edward Bulwer-Lytton (as Pisistratus Caxton), What Will He Do with It? Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, Volume 4, Book 11, Chapter 7, p.294,[15]
- Had Darrell been placed amidst the circ*mstances that make happy the homes of earnest men, Darrell would have been mirthful; had Waife been placed amongst the circ*mstances that concentrate talent, and hedge round life with trained thicksets and belting laurels, Waife would have been grave.
- 1858, Edward Bulwer-Lytton (as Pisistratus Caxton), What Will He Do with It? Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, Volume 4, Book 11, Chapter 7, p.294,[15]
- (uncountable, historical) A stout, twilled cotton cloth; a fustian corduroy, or velveteen.[1]
- 1812, George Crabbe, Tales, London: J. Hatchard, Tale 4, “Procrastination,” p.73,[16]
- When he, with thickset coat of Badge-man’s blue,
- Moves near her shaded silk of changeful hue;
- 1829, anonymous contributor, “A Day at Fontainebleau.—The Royal Hunt,” The Monthly Magazine, New Series, Volume 7, No. 37, January 1829, p.12,[17]
- His breeches were of the homeliest thickset;
- 1812, George Crabbe, Tales, London: J. Hatchard, Tale 4, “Procrastination,” p.73,[16]
- (countable, historical) A piece of clothing made from this fabric.
1785, John Trusler, chapter 17, in Modern Times: or the Adventures of Gabriel Outcast[18], volume 2, London: for the author, page 27:
[…] his coat was originally what is called a thickset, but out at the elbows;
1819, Walter Scott, chapter 1, in The Bride of Lammermoor[19]:
I had observed that our landlord wore, on that memorable morning, a pair of bran new velveteens instead of his ancient thicksets.
References[edit]
- ^ Thomas McElrath, A Dictionary of Words and Phrases Used in Commerce, New York: Taintor Brothers, 1871, p.535.[1]
Anagrams[edit]
- sticketh, thickest, thickets
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