a. and sb. [f. THICK adv. + set, pa. pple. of SET v.]
A. adj. (Stress variable, ·—·, :—·, ·—:; 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. 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 sb. 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 underwood 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. 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.
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.
B. sb.
1. A thicket; a thick-set plantation.
1766. Amory, Buncle (1825), III. 103. 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 stout twilled cotton cloth with a short very close nap; a kind of fustian; also, a garment of this material. ? Obs.
1756. 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.
