Forms: 1 þynne, þinne, þyn, þin, 3–5 þunne, 3–6 thyn, 4 þenne, 4–6 thynne, (4 thyne, 5 thynn), 4–7 thinn(e, (4–5 thine), 6– thin. [OE. þynne = OFris. *thenne, *thinne (WFris. ten, tēn, tin); OLG. *þunni (MLG. dunne, MDu. dunne, dinne, Du. dun), OHG. dunni (MHG. dünne, G. dünn), in Gothic *þunnu-s, ON. þunnr (Sw. tunn, Da. tynd):—OTeut. *þunnu-z, fem. *þunnī, with nu from nw, in Indo-Eur. *tnús, fem. *tnwī, from weak grade of ablaut stem ten-, ton-, tn- to stretch (cf. Skr. tanús, L. tenuis).]
A. adj.
I. 1. Having relatively little extension between opposite surfaces; of little thickness or depth. Opposed to THICK a. 1.
a. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., V. vi. (1890), 400. Stan … mid ðinre tyrf bewriʓen.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 288. Ðeos wyrt … hafað þynne leaf.
c. 1020. Rule St. Benet, lv. (Logeman), 91. Culam on wintre þicce on sumere þinne.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1673 (Cott.). Wit pike þou lok it be noght thyn [v.rr. þinne, thine, þynne].
a. 1310. in Wright, Lyric P., x. 37. Betere is were thunne boute laste, Then syde robes ant synke into synne.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 405. Brood cakes, round and þynne.
1508. Dunbar, Tua Mariit Wemen, 23. With curches … of kirsp cleir and thin.
1530. Palsgr., 280/2. Thyn skynne, tenue peau.
1638. Junius, Paint. Ancients, 227. We doe not make our plate so thinne as to break it.
1710. J. Clarke, Rohault’s Nat. Phil. (1729), I. 215. A Glass that is thinner in the Middle than at the Edges.
1802. Playfair, Illustr. Hutton. Th., 294. The thinnest part of that rock is still covered by the strata.
1887. B. V. Head, Hist. Numorum, 697. The coins of the Sassanian monarchs are thin, flat, and neatly executed.
b. Of small cross section in proportion to length; slender, tenuous, attenuated. (Usually said of a thing more or less cylindrical, as a wire, rod, branch, stem, stock, trunk, limb.)
a. 1425. trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, 59. If it be bi reson of þe membre, þat is for þe membre is to ouer þinne.
1570. Levins, Manip., 133/24. Thinne, gracilis, tenuis.
1665. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1677), 303. Their Harquebuz is longer than ours, but thinner.
1776. Withering, Brit. Plants (1796), IV. 118. Branches … of equal thickness, nay rather thinner at their origin.
1884. Bower & Scott, De Bary’s Phaner., 426. In the cortex of the thin stem.
1885. Watson & Burbury, Math. Th. Electr. & Magn., I. 95. The connection between them being a very thin wire.
c. spec. Having little flesh; lean, spare, not fat or plump. Also of ears of corn.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 206. Ne mæʓ him se lichoma batian ac he bið blac & þynne & acolod.
c. 1050. Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 415/27. Galbus, þynne monn.
a. 1327. Maximon, iv., in Rel. Ant., I. 120. Care and kunde or elde Maketh mi body felde … Ant mi body thunne Such is worldes wunne.
1382. Wyclif, Gen. xli. 6. Seuene eerys … thinne and smytun with meldew, weren growun.
1535. Coverdale, Gen. xli. 3. Seuen kyne,… thynne, euell fauoured, and leenfleshed.
1617. Moryson, Itin., II. 46. His face grew thinne, his ruddy colour failed.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Past., III. 156. My Flocks … yet look so thin, Their Bones are barely cover’d with their Skin.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xlix. You look so pale now, and so thin, too.
1805–6. Coleridge, Three Graves, IV. xi. Oft she said, I’m not grown thin! And then her wrist she spanned.
1865. Miss Braddon, Sir Jasper, iv. 37. To have long thin white hands, all aglitter with diamond rings.
d. Penetrable by light or vision, like a thin veil; fig. easily ‘seen through,’ transparent, flimsy, as a pretext or excuse. (Cf. some uses in 4 a.)
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., V. iii. 125. I come not To heare such flattery now, and in my presence They [commendations] are too thin.
1662. Hibbert, Body Div., I. 252. A lie is of a thin and transparent nature.
1851. Brimley, Ess., Wordsw., 103. Under a thin disguise of name.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xiv. 94. Over the glacier hung a thin veil of fog.
a. 1904. A. Adams, Log Cowboy, xviii. He put up a thin excuse just like the rest. Any one could see through it.
II. 2. Consisting of or characterized by individual constituents or parts placed at relatively large intervals; not thick, dense, or bushy. Opposed to THICK a. 4.
849. in Birch, Cart. Sax., II. 40. In … sceaʓan ðær he ðynnest is.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., II. 466. Oft of ðinnum renscurum flewð seo eorðe.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 48/44. Bote þornes and þunne boskes.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xxvi. 126. Þe Tartarenes base … lytill berdes and thynne.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 491/1. Thynne, as gresse, corne, wodys,… rarus.
1573–80. Baret, Alv., T 166. Thinne,… not thicke growen, or set,… rarus.
1617. Moryson, Itin., II. 45. [Lord Mountjoy’s] haire was … thinne on his head.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 77. Indian population is thin; vast tracts … are uninhabited.
1894. Doyle, Mem. S. Holmes, 49. A thin rain began to fall.
† b. Of the members of a collective group or class: Not numerous or abundant; scarce, rare, few, scanty. Opposed to THICK a. 5. Obs.
1508. Kennedy, Flyting w. Dunbar, 350. Corspatrik … Thy forefader maid Irisch and Irisch men thin.
1573–80. Baret, Alv., T 166. Thinne:… seld and not often, rarus: to waxe thin, to waxe a small number.
1638. Junius, Paint. Ancients, 188. Artificers also grew thinner and thinner, till none at length were left.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), I. 95. Gentry amongst them is very thin,… and coming to dwell in towns, they soon mingle with the merchants, and so degenerate.
1725. T. Thomas, in Portland Papers, VI. (Hist. MSS. Comm.), 109. Churches are very thin in this part of the World.
[1863. W. C. Baldwin, Afr. Hunting, ix. 405. Game of all sorts is as thin as deal boards.]
† c. Of a place: Sparsely occupied or peopled; with of, sparsely fumished or supplied with; thinly occupied or attended by. Obs.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., Democr. to Rdr. (1628), 52. Many Kingdomes are fertile, but thin of inhabitants.
1673. Essex Papers (Camden), I. 65. How thinn of Soldrs are ye Few Garrisons we keepe.
1693. Humours Toun, 51. You must be content with such as your thin Neighbourhood affords.
1711. Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 24 Aug. The town being thin, I am less pestered with company.
1733. Tull, Horse-Hoeing Husb., xi. 124. Both these Rows were Thin of Plants.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), VII. 528/1. Galicia … is but thin of people.
1800. Ht. Lee, Canterb. T. (ed. 2), III. 89. Summer was now fast approaching, and the town was thin.
d. Of an assembly or body of people: Scantily furnished with members; thinly attended; not full.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., V. § 361. What had been … in a full House, rejected, was many times in a thin House … resumed, and determined contrary to the former conclusions.
1660. Pepys, Diary, 2 Oct. There I found but a thin congregation already.
1703. Lond. Gaz., No. 3904/1. Their Battalions are thin and sickly.
1713. S. Sewall, Diary, 27 Oct. Buried with a very thin Funeral.
1746. Francis, trans. Horace’s Art Poetry, 297. The little Theatre … To which a thin and pious Audience came.
1860–70. Stubbs, Lect. Europ. Hist., I. ix. (1904), 119. In a very thin meeting, Ferdinand stated his view.
3. Of a liquid or a pasty substance: Of slight density or consistence; fluid; of air or vapor: not dense; rare, tenuous, subtile, Opp. to THICK a. 6.
a. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., III. xix. [xxvii.] (1890), 244. Nemne medmicel hlafes mid þinre meolc.
a. 1000. Boeth. Metr., v. 6. Ær se þicca mist þynra weorðe.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 314. Hrer on blede oþ ꝥ hit sie þicce swa þynne briw.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxxii. (Iustin) 735. Vndir it a fyre gert ma Til þat mater [pitch and brimstone] wes moltyne thyne.
c. 1430. Two Cookery-bks., 12. Late it be nowt to þikke ne to þinne, but as potage shulde be.
1530. Palsgr., 280/2. Thyn cloude in the ayre.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. ii. I. i. (1651), 232. Pure, thin, light water.
1667. Milton, P. L., VIII. 348. Fish … cannot change Thir Element to draw the thinner Aire.
1744. Berkeley, Siris, § 121. An exceeding thin volatile oil.
1850. Young’s Patent, in Law Times Rep., X. 862/1. Chalk, ground up with a little water into a thin paste.
b. transf. and fig. Wanting body or substance; unsubstantial; intangible.
1610. Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 150. These our actors … were all Spirits, and Are melted into Ayre, into thin Ayre.
1705. Addison, Italy, 3. The lab’ring Plow-man oft with Horror spies Thin airy Shapes that o’er the Furrows rise.
1724. R. Welton, Chr. Faith & Pract., 120. All the thin and airy delights of the world.
1892. Westcott, Gospel of Life, 108. Man cannot live in the thin atmosphere of abstractions.
1907. Edin. Rev., Oct., 402. Logic is too thin and bloodless a thing to govern life.
c. Wanting depth or intensity; faint, weak, dim, pale. Formerly of light (arch.): in mod. use, of colors, painting, or the like.
1649. Lovelace, Poems, 90. Yet its Glory did appeare But thinne, because her eyes were neere.
1655. Stanley, Hist. Philos., II. (1701), 61/2. The Moon hath a light of her own: but very thin.
1875. Fortnum, Maiolica, xiv. 156. The use of a bright yellow … in imitations of the golden lustre, and a thin green.
1893. Hodges, Elem. Photogr. (1907), 102. Thin and rather weak negatives.
1894. Athenæum, 3 March, 285/3. The figures are half-lengths, and executed in a thin, hard, and laborious manner.
d. Of sound: Wanting fullness, volume, or depth; weak and high-pitched; shrill and feeble.
1690. Dryden, Don Sebast., II. i.
| Sometimes, methinks, I hear the groans of Ghosts; | |
| Thin, hollow sounds, and lamentable screams. |
1726. Pope, Odyss., XXIV. 8. Trembling the Spectres glide, and plaintive vent Thin, hollow screams.
1824. Lamb, Elia, Ser. II. Capt. Jackson. Be dumb, thou thin accompanier of her thinner warble!
a. 1895. W. Morris, in Mackail, Life (1899), II. 314. I heard … the trowels fall Upon the stone, a thin noise far away.
1901. Scotsman, 15 March, 7/4. The possessor of the thinnest treble in the Irish quarter … piped tremulously.
4. fig. Deficient in substance or quality; poor; unsubstantial. a. Of immaterial things: Wanting in fullness, breadth, force, or vigor; scanty, insufficient; weak, feeble; slight; of little worth.
[a. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., V. xvii. [xix.] (1890), 462. Nemne ðynre eðunge anre ætywde þæt he lifes wæs.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 84. Hwilc ꝥ mæʓen sie & sio ʓecynd þæs lichoman, hwæþer hio sie strang…, þe hio sie hnesce & mearwe & þynne.]
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 144. Vre god þet is þunne—vre sunnen þet beoð so monie.
c. 1315. Shoreham, iii. 272. Hare wyȝt [= wit] hys al to þenne.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 113. My witte was oure thynne So strange speche to trauayle in.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., II. Met. vii. 47 (Camb. MS.). The thynne fame yit lastynge of hir ydel names, is marked with a fewe letterys.
c. 1420. ? Lydg., Assembly of Gods, 1591. My brayne ys so thynne.
1545. Ascham, Toxoph. (Arb.), 28. As thinne invention, as other poore men.
1580. H. Gifford, Posie Gillowflowers, Merrie Jest. Yet was her wit but thin.
1658–9. Burton’s Diary (1828), IV. 65. They are gallant in their persons, but thin in relations.
1844. Kinglake, Eöthen, vii. (1878), 96. Engaged in very thin conversation.
1888. Daily News, 9 July, 4/8. The apology is a very lame one—what our American cousins call ‘thin.’
1890. Spectator, 16 Aug., 221/2. This is about the thinnest travel-book we have ever read.
1894. Westm. Gaz., 5 Feb., 1/2. Really, has not this laudation of the old at the expense of the new become a little too thin?
b. Of diet or supplies: Scanty, meager, spare; not full or rich; poor, low. Now rare.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Former Age, 36. Ther as vitayle is ek so skars and thinne [v.r. thynne].
c. 1450. St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 5264. Bot vytayls were ful thynn.
c. 1485. Digby Myst., III. 1733. Yower spendyng is thyn.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot. (Rolls), II. 618. Becaus he wes in his substance so thyn.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., IV. iv. 61. At so slender warning, You are like to haue a thin and slender pittance.
1648. Crashaw, Steps to Temple, Wks. (1904), 82. Nor hath God a thinner Share.
1707. Floyer, Physic. Pulse-Watch, 196. In these Fasting is necessary, or a thin Diet.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, VI. i. Thin entertainment here, kind Sir.
c. spec. Of liquor: Without body; not strong or rich; of low alcoholic strength; weak. (Cf. 3.)
[1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XIX. 398. I can selle Bothe dregges & draffe, and drawe it at on hole, Þikke ale and þinne ale.]
c. 1440. Alphabet of Tales, 6. I may not drynk your thyn ale.
1560. Pilkington, Expos. Aggeus (1562), 90. Loke howe many of youre poore neighbours … drink thin drink.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. iii. 134. To forsweare thinne Potations, and to addict themselues to Sack.
1691. Ray, N. C. Words, 138. Thin drink, small Beer, Cerevisia tenuis.
1859. Dickens, T. Two Cities, II. xv. Monsieur Defarge sold a very thin wine at the best of times.
B. absol. as sb.: mostly elliptical or nonce-uses. Thin and thick: see THICK AND THIN.
c. 1350. St. Jacob, 173 (xix.), in Horstmann, Altengl. Leg. (1881), 99/1. Þai suld noght leue for thin ne thik Till þai war broght bath ded or quik.
1426. Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 11135. I [Youth] passe bothe thorgh thynne & thykke.
1895. G. Allen, Woman who did (1906), 184. This very fact that she had always lived in the Thick of Things made a change to the Thin of Things only the more enchanting.
C. adv. 1. = THINLY 1. † To go thin: to wear thin clothing, to be thinly clad (obs.).
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 1529. Wel þunne isrud & ived wroþe.
a. 1610. Healey, Theophrastus (1636), 11. Why hee goes so thinne, and why hee will not go better cloth’d?
a. 1631. Donne, Serm., xlv. 450. Spread we this a little thinner, and we shall better see through it.
1633. Herbert, Temple, Praise, vii. My heart, Though press’d, runnes thin.
1652–62. Heylin, Cosmogr., IV. (1682), 31. The people go extreme thin in the sharpest Winter.
1738. Swift, Pol. Conversat., p. xliii. They ought to be husbanded better, and spread much thinner.
1806. A. Hunter, Culina (ed. 2), 194. Cut the chops very thin.
† b. In a poor or sparing manner. Obs.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 325. Let the Horse be thin dieted, during his curing time.
2. = THINLY 2.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, IV. 685. Bot þai prophetis so thyn ar sawin, Þat [etc.].
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s Prol., 679. But thinne it lay, by colpons oon and oon.
1573–80. Baret, Alv., T 167. Seldome: not oft: thinne: not thicke, rare.
1649. Blithe, Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653), To Husbandm. The earlier thou sowest, the thinner thou maiest sow thy winter corn.
1707. Mortimer, Husb. (1721), I. 34. To sow something thinner than ordinary.
1886. C. Scott, Sheep-Farming, 37. The thinner sheep are pastured the healthier they are.
D. Combinations. I. Of the adj.
a. Chiefly parasynthetic adjectives, as thin-bedded, -bladed, -brained (in sense A. 4 a), -checked, -faced, -flanked, † -gaskined (GASKIN1 2), -haired, -leaved, -lipped, -rinded († rined), -soled, -stemmed, etc. See also THIN-GUTTED, -SKINNED, -WALLED.
1859. Murchison, Siluria, iv. (ed. 3), 75. We reach the *thin-bedded … flags.
1855. Whyte-Melville, Gen. Bounce, ix. A *thin-bladed knife and two-pronged fork.
1598. Marston, Sco. Villanie, III. x. *Thin-brain’d Idiots, dull, vncapable.
1596. R. L[inche], Diella (1877), 74. In my *thin-cheekt face thou well maist see.
1633. T. Adams, Exp. 2 Peter, ii. 1. Away with that *thin-dawned profession.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., V. i. 213. A *thin fac’d knaue, a gull.
1899. Crockett, Kit Kennedy, xii. 88. A thin-faced … woman, with an air of being perpetually tired.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. V., clxiv. The *thin-film’d Bladder breakes.
1737. Bracken, Farriery Impr. (1757), II. 102. Some Horses are so *thin Gascoign’d, that they will never look plump.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. xv. (Bodl. MS.). The Bugle is … *þynne hered.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 96. The *thin-leav’d Arbute Hazle Graffs receives.
1897. Daily News, 2 Oct., 2/3. Cranes and herons and ibis and other *thin-legged water fowl.
1681. Grew, Musæum, I. VI. i. 130. The *Thin-Lip’d Wilk.
1907. H. Wyndham, Flare Footlights, vii. An unpleasant smile playing about the corners of his thin-lipped mouth.
1677. Yarranton, Eng. Improv., 120. Our Wheat is large, full-brested, and *thin-rined.
1805. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. 572. The most plump and thinnest-rinded grain.
1682. Otway, Venice Preserved, III. ii. Cathars and Tooth Ach got By *thin-sol’d shoos.
1869. Tozer, Highl. Turkey, I. 315. An Albanian with his long *thin-stocked gun.
b. Special combinations and collocations: thin-belly, one who has a thin belly; in quot. attrib.; so thin-bellied a., lean, hungry-looking; thin coal, coal found in shallow beds or seams: cf. thick coal s.v. THICK a. 12 b; thin-headed a., having a thin or narrow head; fig. shallow-pated, silly; thin miner, thin seam (also attrib.), see quots.; thin-worn a., made thin by wear.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., III. i. 19. Your armes crost on your *thinbellie doublet.
1591. Percival, Span. Dict., Trasijado, lanke, *thinne bellied.
1855. J. Phillips, Man. Geol., 188. Strata and *thin coals.
1900. Engineering Mag., XIX. 717. In days gone by thin seams were worked by special thin coal miners.
1603. Dekker, Wonderfull Yeare, A iij b. *Thin-headed fellowes that liue vpon the scraps of inuention.
1804. Shaw, Gen. Zool., V. 237. Thin-headed Carp, Cyprinus Leptocephalus.
1892. Labour Commission Gloss., *Thin miners, miners who get coal out of thin seams.
1883. Gresley, Gloss, Coal-mining, *Thin Seams,… coal seams (say) less than 3 feet in thickness.
1887. Pall Mall G., 5 Sept., 12/1. The coal-mining industry in the thin-seam districts.
1823. Mrs. Grant, Mem. & Corr. (1844), III. 31. Easily she threw off the *thin-worn robe of mortality.
II. Of the adverb: with participles or adjectives, to which thin is now joined by a hyphen, or as a single word; forming adjs., usually of obvious meaning, unlimited in number, as, in sense 1, thin-clad, -cut, -frozen, -laid, -lined, -pervading, -veiled, -wrought; in sense 2, † thin-bred, -descending, -flowing, -grown, -officered, -peopled, -set, -shot, etc. See also THIN-SOWN, THIN-SPUN.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 320. A berd as a besom with *thyn bred haris.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., IV. xvii. § 4. ’Tis not safe … to go abroad *thin clad.
1851. Carlyle, J. Sterling, I. ii. (1872), 11. A light *thin-flowing style of mirth.
1865. W. J. Linton, 3 Englishmen, Alfred. He … breaks a way through the *thin-frozen sludge.
1908. Westm. Gaz., 29 Sept., 4/2. Prices that need not stand in the way of the *thinnest-lined of purses.
a. 1687. Petty, Pol. Arith., i. (1690), 11. In *thin peopled places.
1647–9. G. Daniel, Poems, Wks. (Grosart), II. 130. Hee, poore Swaine, in bare And *thin-Set Shades did Sing.
1812. Crabbe, Tales, x. 351. The burning sand, the fields of thin-set rye.
1642. H. More, Song of Soul, II. iii. I. xxiii. Their *thin-shot shadowings And lightned sides.
1538. Elyot, Dict., Leuidensis, *thynne wrought, and of small substance.
