Definition of "thick"

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. […].

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 17, in The China Governess‎

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.

2007, James T. Knight, Queen of the Hustle

JJ loved “average hood girls”, Cody loved dark-skinned thick girls and Mooch lusted for yellow-boned skinny woman.

2009, Kenny Attaway, Nuthouse Love, page 82

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.

1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 3, in Mr. Pratt's Patients

Jem is a tall, good-looking fellow, as old as I am, and that's twenty-one last birthday; we came into the office together years ago, and have been very thick ever since

1859, Thomas Hughes, The Scouring of the White Horse

Thick prehistory also is interested in a much broader array of topics than the perennial sociological concern for how individuals relate to the collective and how social continuity and change occur in light of that relationship; thick prehistory addresses the social, biological, and psychological person.

2006, Christopher Carr, D. Troy Case, “The Gathering of Hopewell”, in Christopher Carr, D. Troy Case, editors, Gathering Hopewell: Society, Ritual, and Ritual Interaction, page 47

A thick theory, such as libertarianism or socialism, is not appropriate as the basis for a constitution in a pluralistic society in which the people hold differing views about the good (or justice).

2013, John O. McGinnis, Michael B. Rappaport, Originalism and the Good Constitution, page 5

Nor is his defence of market capitalism likely to persuade all his progressive friends, because no matter how much fairness is achieved through an application of the difference principle, they are reluctant to accept Tomasi’s defence of private property rights or a thick concept of economic freedom.

2021, Wanjiru Njoya, Economic Freedom and Social Justice: The Classical Ideal of Equality in Contexts of Racial Diversity, page 95

"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."

1969, Anita Leslie, Lady Randolph Churchill, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 288

A word to the thick soul sistas, I want to get with ya

1991, “Baby Got Back”, in Mack Daddy, performed by Sir Mix-a-Lot

He through a little window cast his sight / Through thick of bars, that gave a scanty light.

1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]

gloomy thicks

1612, Michael Drayton, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] H[umphrey] L[ownes] for Mathew Lownes; I. Browne; I. Helme; I. Busbie, published 1613

Through the thicke they heard one rudely rush.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie

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.

2014, Joseph O'Connor, The Thrill of It All, page 100

A wicked ambush , which lay hidden long In the close covert of her guilful eyen, Thence breaking forth , did thick about me throng

1595, Edmunde Spenser [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “[Amoretti.] Sonnet VII”, in Amoretti and Epithalamion. […], London: […] [Peter Short] for William Ponsonby; reprinted in Amoretti and Epithalamion (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas […], 1927,

The nightmare Life-in-death was she, / Who thicks man's blood with cold.

1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, chapter 3, in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, lines 193–194