thick-set, a. and n.
[f. thick adv. + set, pa. pple. of set v.1]
A. adj. (Stress variable, ˈthick-ˈset, ˌthick-ˈset, ˈthick-ˌset; cf. note under ill adv. 3.)
1. Composed of individuals or parts arranged in close order; thickly studded or planted (with something).
| ? a 1366 Chaucer Rom. Rose 1419 By the stremes..Sprang up the gras, as thikke sette And softe as ony velvet. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. (1637) 627 Thicker set with high Hilles. c 1665 Mrs. Hutchinson Mem. Col. Hutchinson (1846) 22 His hair of light brown, very thick set in his youth. 1697 Dryden æneid i. 617 Thick-set with trees, a venerable wood. 1869 H. F. Tozer Highl. Turkey II. 220 A wild hilly country..thick-set with bushes of prickly palluria. |
| c 1410 Master of Game (MS. Digby 182) xxiv, He [a hart] bereth a thykesette heede [head n. 6]. 1638–48 G. Daniel Eclog. ii. 2 The Covert of yond' thickset Thorne. a 1700 Dryden Ovid's Met. xiii. Acis, etc. 156 A thick-set under⁓wood of bristling hair. 1819 Crabbe T. of Hall vi. 132 That thickset alley by the arbour closed. |
2. Set or placed close together; closely arranged.
| 1570–6 Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 181 The place hath in it sundry villages, although not thicke set, nor much inhabited. 1765 Museum Rust. V. xxiv. 118 Its flowers are yellow, and thick-set. |
| 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. i. 447 Where Corineus ran With slaughter through the thick-set squadrons of the foes. 1848 Buckley Iliad 457 They made a great fence around, with thick-set stakes. |
3. a. Having a dense or close-grained nap:
cf. B. 2.
b. thick-set wheat: see
quot. 1808.
| 1709 Lond. Gaz. No. 4608/4 A pair of thickset Fustian Breeches. 1769 Public Advertiser 25 Sept. 3/1 Dressed in Fustian or Thickset Cloaths. 1808 Batchelor Agric. 362 Velvet-eared wheat, which is called in this county white-chaffed led wheat, and thick-set wheat. |
4. Of close compact build;
esp. short and strongly made; square-built; stocky. (This is now the commonest use.)
| 1724 Lond. Gaz. No. 6251/3 He is a thick-set Boy. 1777 Charact. in Ann. Reg. 43/1 A short thick-set man, with a very honest ingenuous countenance. 1824 L. M. Hawkins Annaline I. 86 Distinguished by thickset limbs. 1830 Marryat King's Own xix, He was short and thick-set. 1893 H. Vizetelly Glances back through Seventy Years I. viii. 165 Captain Marryat was tall,..but broad shouldered and thick set. 1977 N. Adam Triplehip Cracksman xiv. 143 A thickset..guy in a thick woollen polo-neck sweater. |
B. n. (
ˈθɪksɛt).
1. A thicket; a thick-set plantation.
| 1766 T. Amory Buncle (1825) III. 108 The first spring of this water is..in the middle of a thick-set of shrubs. 1844 P. Parley's Ann. V. 191 Tungee had more than once threaded this maze of wood and thickset. |
2. a. A stout twilled cotton cloth with a short very close nap; a kind of fustian; also, a garment of this material. ?
Obs.| 1756 W. Toldervy Hist. 2 Orphans II. 105 The latter having on his back his common grey frock, and the former a Manchester thickset. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 440 Jeans, fustians, denims, thicksets, velvets. 1822 Galt Sir A. Wylie i, His breeches, of olive thickset, were..carefully preserved from stains. 1882 Beck Draper's Dict. 142 Corduroy and thickset are also coarser varieties of fustian. |
b. Short for
thick-set wheat (see A. 3 b).
| 1875 Encycl. Brit. I. 354/1 The red-straw white [wheat] and Piper's thick-set have properties similar to the Fenton. |