thin
thin
(θɪn )Word forms: comparative thinner , superlative thinnest , 3rd person singular present tense thins , present participle thinning , past tense, past participle thinned
1. adjective
Something that is thin is much narrower than it is long.
A thin cable carries the signal to a computer.
James's face was thin, finely boned, and sensitive.
narrow, fine, attenuate, attenuated, threadlike2. adjective
He was a tall, thin man with grey hair.
He is small and very thin and has pale-white skin.
slim, spare, lean, slight, slender, skinny, light, meagre, skeletal, bony, lanky, emaciated, spindly, underweight, scrawny, lank, undernourished, skin and bone, scraggy, thin as a rake, macilent [rare]thinness uncountable noun
There was something familiar about him, his fawn raincoat, his thinness, the way he moved.
3. adjective
Something such as paper or cloth that is thin is flat and has only a very small distance between its two opposite surfaces.
...a small, blue-bound book printed in fine type on thin paper.
A thin layer of topsoil was swept away.
thinly adverb [ADVERB with verb]
Peel and thinly slice the onion.
Roll the pasta out as thinly as possible.
4. adjective
5. adjective
The crowd, which had been thin for the first half of the race, had now grown considerably.
meagre, sparse, scanty, poor, scattered, inadequate, insufficient, deficient, paltrythinly adverb [ADVERB -ed]
The island is thinly populated.
...thinly attended meetings.
6. graded adjective [usually ADJECTIVE noun]
thinly graded adverb [ADVERB after verb]
Wilson smiled thinly. 'We have decided to name the new Home after Councillor Minford.'
7. adjective
Thin clothes are made from light cloth and are not warm to wear.
Her gown was thin, and she shivered, partly from cold.
fine, delicate, flimsy, sheer, transparent, see-through, translucent, skimpy, gossamer, diaphanous, filmy, unsubstantialthinly adverb [ADVERB adjective/-ed]
Mrs Brown wrapped the thinly clad man in her fur coat.
8. adjective
If you describe an argument or explanation as thin, you mean that it is weak and difficult to believe.
However, the evidence is thin and, to some extent, ambiguous.
Even if the optimists' theory is true, it still seems a thin argument against reform.
unconvincing, inadequate, feeble, poor, weak, slight, shallow, insufficient, superficial, lame, scant, flimsy, scanty, unsubstantialthinly adverb [usually ADVERB -ed, oft ADV before v]
Much of the speech was a thinly disguised attack on the management of the company.
...a series of what correspondents describe as thinly veiled threats to use force.
9. graded adjective
10. adjective
11. verb
When you thin something or when it thins, it becomes less crowded because people or things have been removed from it.
It would have been better to have thinned the trees over several winters rather than all at one time. [VERB noun]
By midnight the crowd had thinned. [VERB]
prune, trim, cut back, weed outThin out means the same as thin.
NATO will continue to thin out its forces. [VERB PARTICLE noun]
When the crowd began to thin out, I realized that most of the food was still there. [VERB PARTICLE]
Further up the river, the vineyards start to thin out and the orange groves and almond trees take over. [VERB PARTICLE]
[Also VERB noun PARTICLE]12. verb
It may be necessary to thin the sauce slightly. [VERB noun]
Aspirin thins the blood, letting it flow more easily through narrowed blood vessels. [VERB noun]
dilute, water down, weaken, attenuateThin down means the same as thin.
Thin down your mayonnaise with soured cream or natural yoghurt. [VERB PARTICLE noun]
...an oil-based paint that was thinned down with white spirit. [VERB PARTICLE noun (not pronoun)]
13. verb
If a man's hair is thinning, it has begun to fall out.
His hair is thinning and his skin has lost all hint of youth. [VERB]
14.
15. on thin ice
16. thin air
