different between thick vs slabby

English

Alternative forms

• (meme slang: curvy): thicc

Etymology

From Middle English thicke, from Old English þicce (“thick, dense”), from Proto-West Germanic *þikkw?, from Proto-Germanic *þekuz (“thick”), from Proto-Indo-European *tégus (“thick”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: th?k
• (Received Pronunciation, General American, General Australian) IPA^(key): /??k/
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /??k/
• Rhymes: -?k

Adjective

thick (comparative thicker, superlative thickest)

1. Relatively great in extent from one surface to the opposite in its smallest solid dimension.

   Synonyms: broad; see also Thesaurus:wide

   Antonyms: slim, thin; see also Thesaurus:narrow
2. Measuring a certain number of units in this dimension.

3. Heavy in build; thickset.

   Synonyms: chunky, solid, stocky, thickset

   Antonyms: slender, slight, slim, svelte, thin; see also Thesaurus:slender

4. Densely crowded or packed.

   Synonyms: crowded, dense, packed; see also Thesaurus:compact

   Antonyms: sparse; see also Thesaurus:diffuse

5. Having a viscous consistency.

   Synonyms: glutinous, viscous; see also Thesaurus:viscous

   Antonyms: free-flowing, runny; see also Thesaurus:runny

6. Abounding in number.

   Synonyms: overflowing, swarming, teeming; see also Thesaurus:plentiful

   Antonyms: scant, scarce, slight

7. Impenetrable to sight.

   Synonyms: dense, opaque, solid; see also Thesaurus:opaque

   Antonyms: thin, transparent; see also Thesaurus:transparent

8. (Of an accent) Prominent, strong.
   1. Greatly evocative of one's nationality or place of origin.

   2. Difficult to understand, or poorly articulated.

      Synonyms: unclear; see also Thesaurus:incomprehensible

      Antonyms: clear, lucid; see also Thesaurus:comprehensible

9. (informal) Stupid.

   Synonyms: dense, (informal) dumb, stupid, (taboo slang) thick as pigshit, (slang) thick as two short planks; see also Thesaurus:stupid

   Antonyms: (informal) brainy, intelligent, smart; see also Thesaurus:intelligent

10. (informal) Friendly or intimate.

    Synonyms: (UK, informal) chummy, close, close-knit, friendly, (informal) pally, intimate, tight-knit

    Antonym: unacquainted

    • 1859, Thomas Hughes, The Scouring of the White Horse

      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

11. Deep, intense, or profound.

    Synonyms: great, extreme

12. (Britain, dated) troublesome; unreasonable
    • 1969 Anita Leslie, Lady Randolph Churchill, New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, page 288:

      "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."

14. (slang, chiefly of women) Curvy and voluptuous, and especially having large hips.

    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:voluptuous

Derived terms

Translations

Adverb

thick (comparative thicker, superlative thickest)

1. In a thick manner.

   Snow lay thick on the ground.

2. Frequently or numerously.

   The arrows flew thick and fast around us.

Translations

Noun

thick (plural thicks)

1. The thickest, or most active or intense, part of something.

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

2. A thicket.

   • gloomy thicks
3. (slang) A stupid person; a fool.

Derived terms

• in the thick of
• through thick and thin

Translations

Verb

thick (third-person singular simple present thicks, present participle thicking, simple past and past participle thicked)

1. (archaic, transitive, intransitive) To thicken.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:thicken

English

Etymology 1

slab (“mud, sludge”) +? -y

Adjective

slabby (comparative slabbier, superlative slabbiest)

1. Of a liquid: thick; viscous.
   • 1696, John Selden, Table-Talk, London: Jacob Tonson, “Pope,” p. 127,^[1]

     The Pope in sending Relicks to Princes, does as Wenches do by their Wassels at New-years-tide, they present you with a Cup, and you must drink of a slabby stuff; but the meaning is, you must give them Moneys, ten times more than it is worth.

2. Of a surface: sloppy, slimy.
   • 1846, Charles Dickens, Pictures from Italy, London: for the author, “Genoa and its Neighbourhood,” p. 48,^[2]

     I went down into the garden, intended to be prim and quaint, with avenues, and terraces, and orange-trees, and statues, and water in stone basins; and everything was green, gaunt, weedy, straggling, under grown or over grown, mildewy, damp, redolent of all sorts of slabby, clammy, creeping, and uncomfortable life.

3. (of weather) Rainy, wet.
   • 1581, John Studley (translator), Hercules Oetaeus, Act I, in Seneca his Tenne Tragedies, Translated into Englysh, London: Thomas Marsh,^[3]

     To Virgo, Leo turnes the time, and in a reaking sweate.

     He buskling vp his burning Mane, doth dry the dropping south.

     And swallowes vp the slabby cloudes in fyry foming mouth.

   • 1676, John Evelyn, A Philosophical Discourse of Earth, London: John Martyn, p. 58,^[4]

     […] I am only to caution our labourer as to the present work, that he do not stir the ground in over-wet and slabby weather […]

Derived terms

• slabbiness

Etymology 2

slab (“solid object that is large and flat”) +? -y

Adjective

slabby (comparative slabbier, superlative slabbiest)

1. Composed of slabs; resembling a slab or slabs; inelegant, cumbersome, clunky.
   • 1905, Robert W. Chambers, Iole, New York: D. Appleton, p. 3,^[5]

     Then he set up another shop an’ hired some of us ’round here to go an’ make them big, slabby art-chairs.

   • 1962, Richard McKenna, The Sand Pebbles, New York: Harper & Row, Chapter ,^[6]

     He was big and pink and slabby with muscle, but not very hairy, for a white man.

   • 2010, Euan Ferguson, “Hay’s unmissable (if you can get there...),” The Guardian, 30 May, 2010,^[7]

     The papers were full yesterday morning, you see, of the iPad. […] a million fidget-fingered twits were salivating for the chance to show off their slabby electro-tablets […]