dense, a.
(dɛns)
[ad. L. dens-us thick, dense, crowded. Cf. F. dense (Paré, 16th c., in 13th c. dempse), perh. the immediate source of the Eng.]
1. Having its constituent particles closely compacted together; thick, compact. a. Of close molecular structure. Opp. to rare.
| 1599 A. M. tr. Gabelhouer's Bk. Physicke 56/1 When as the Cataracte is so dense and of such a crassitude that heer⁓with they will not be soackede. 1671 R. Bohun Wind 192 The Earth, being a dense body, retaines the Calorifique impressions. 1794 Sullivan View Nat. I. 145 It pervades all bodies, dense as well as rare. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. x. 66 Dense fog settled upon the cascade. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 227 The dense bones resist decay longer. |
b. Having its (perceptibly separate) parts or constituents closely crowded together; in Bot. and Zool. closely set.
| 1776 Withering Brit. Plants (1796) III. 366 Grows in dense tufts. 1793 Martyn Lang. Bot., Dense panicle. 1825 Southey Tale of Paraguay i. 7 Marshes wide and woodlands dense. 1836 Marryat Midsh. Easy xxv, The crowd..was so dense that it was hardly possible to move. 1846 M{supc}Culloch Acc. Brit. Empire (1854) I. 393 Their population, which in most instances is very dense, amounts to about 45,000. |
c. Crowded, ‘thick’ (with). rare.
| 1842 Tennyson Morte d'Arthur 196 All the decks were dense with stately forms. |
2. fig. a. gen.
| 1732 Hist. Litteraria III. 249 Sometimes the Author is not so properly concise, as dense, if I may use the Word. When the Subject is limpid of it self, he frequently inspissates it. 1760 Franklin Lett. Wks. (1887) III. 42 Six weeks of the densest happiness I have met with. 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. (1872) II. 156 If his character were sufficiently sound and dense to be capable of steadfast principle. |
b. esp. Of ignorance, stupidity, etc.: Profound, intense, impenetrable, crass.
| 1877 Black Green Past. vii. (1878) 55 The dense ignorance in which they have been allowed to grow up. |
c. transf. Of persons: Stupid, ‘thick-headed’.
| 1822 Lamb Elia Ser. i. Artif. Comedy Last Cent., More virtuous than myself, or more dense. 1887 Poor Nellie (1888) 114 He will..put notions into her dense head. |
3. Photography. Of a negative: Opaque in the developed film, so as to yield prints in which the lights and shades are well contrasted.
4. Comb.
| 1861 Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. V. 298 Dense-headed Rush. 1870 Hooker Stud. Flora 383 Heads dense-flowered. 1874 L. Carr Jud. Gwynne I. iv. 123 How quicksighted do the most dense-minded men become when in love! |
Hence (nonce-wd.) dense v., to make dense; ˈdensing vbl. n.
| 1888 F. H. Stoddard in Andover Rev. Oct., It is the densing of the slight, the fleshing of the spiritual. |