Dictionary

thickset

Adjective

thickset

Having a relatively short, heavy build.
a thickset, muscular figure; a thickset workhorse
Synonyms: big-boned, stocky, stout
Antonyms: sleek, slender, slim, svelte, willowy
- 1654, Samuel Clarke (minister), The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History, London: T.V., “The Life of Theodore Beza,” p. 885,
  He was a thick set man, and of a strong Constitution […]
- 1748, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Roderick Random, London: J. Osborn, Volume 1, Chapter 8, p. 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,
- 1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Book 4, Chapter 41,
  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, Her Mother’s Daughter, New York: George H. Doran, Chapter 1,
  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 […]
- 1970, Saul Bellow, Mr. Sammler's Planet, Penguin, 1977, Chapter 6, p. 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.
Densely crowded together; made up of things that are densely crowded together; closely planted.
a thickset wood; a thickset hedge
Synonyms: dense, thick
Antonyms: sparse, thin
- 1581, Thomas Newton (poet) (translator), Phoenissae (Seneca) in Seneca the Younger His Tenne Tragedies, London: Thomas Marsh, Act 2, p. 48,
  […] 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,
  […] Corineus ran
  With slaughter through the thick-set squadrons of the foes;
- 1635, John Taylor (poet), The olde, old, very olde man: or the age and long life of Thomas Par, 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, A Fountain of Gardens, London, “Solomon’s Porch: or the Beautiful Gate of Wisdom’s Temple,”
  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, John Dryden (translator), “Meleager and Atalanta, Out of the Eighth Book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses” in Fables Ancient and Modern, London: Jacob Tonson, p. 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, London: Macmillan, p. 56,
  My heart is like an appletree
  Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;
- 1950, Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast (novel), London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, Chapter 77,
  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,
  […] in a vessell being thick set with sharpe nayles, he tormented him to the poynt of death:
- 1660, Nathaniel Ingelo, Bentivolio and Urania, 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 Allegory of the Cave, where one could see nothing but shadowes.
- 1908, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, Chapter 4,
  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, The Cat in Grand-Father’s House, Chicago: Laidlaw Brothers, Chapter 7, p. 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.

Synonyms

(stout, fat) See also Thesaurus:obese

Noun

thickset

(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,
  Had Darrell been placed amidst the circumstances that make happy the homes of earnest men, Darrell would have been mirthful; had Waife been placed amongst the circumstances that concentrate talent, and hedge round life with trained thicksets and belting laurels, Waife would have been grave.
(uncountable, historical) A stout, twilled cotton cloth; a fustian corduroy, or velveteen.
- 1812, George Crabbe, Tales, London: J. Hatchard, Tale 4, “Procrastination,” p. 73,
  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,” Monthly Magazine, New Series, Volume 7, No. 37, January 1829, p. 12,
  His breeches were of the homeliest thickset;
(countable, historical) A piece of clothing made from this fabric.
- 1785, John Trusler, Modern Times: or the Adventures of Gabriel Outcast, London: for the author, Volume 2, Chapter 17, p. 27,
  […] his coat was originally what is called a thickset, but out at the elbows;
- 1819, Walter Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor, Chapter 1,
  I had observed that our landlord wore, on that memorable morning, a pair of bran new velveteens instead of his ancient thicksets.

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