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thin

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, and thin

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English thinne, thunne, thenne, from Old English thynne, from Proto-West Germanic *thunni, from Proto-Germanic *thunnuz ("thin") - compare *thanjana ("to stretch, spread out") - from Proto-Indo-European *tenh2us ("thin"), from *ten- ("to stretch").

Cognate with German dunn, Dutch dun, West Frisian tin, Icelandic thunnur, Danish tynd, Swedish tunn, Latin tenuis, Irish tanai, Welsh tenau, Latvian tievs, Polish cienki, Russian tonkii (tonkij), Sanskrit tnu (tanu, "thin"), Persian tng (tang, "narrow"). Doublet of tenuis. Also related to tenuous.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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thin (comparative thinner, superlative thinnest)

Woman with a thin waist
  1. Having little thickness or extent from one surface to its opposite.
    thin plate of metal; thin paper; thin board; thin covering
    • 1853, Charles MacFarlane, Kismet: or, The doom of Turkey, page 66:
      It was no mystery at all, or a mystery covered only with the thinnest and most transparent veil, that forced abortion is a common practice among Turkish women. The horrible secret as to the means and the drugs to be employed is pretty generally known, and where ignorance prevails there are "wise women," old hags, professional abortists, who go about the country relieving matrons of their burthens for a few piastres apiece [...]
    • 1943 November - 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm [...], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, -OCLC:
      Out of spite, the human beings pretended not to believe that it was Snowball who had destroyed the windmill: they said that it had fallen down because the walls were too thin.
    • 2019 August 6, Ashley Strickland, "Scientists just created the world's thinnest gold and it's two atoms thick", in CNN[1]:
      The newest form of gold created in a lab is the thickness of two atoms, according to a new study. It's only 0.47 nanometers thick, which is one million times thinner than a human finger nail. [...] This makes it the thinnest unsupported gold ever created and it could be used in electronics and medical devices going forward.
      The gold is made up of two layers of atoms stacked on top of each other. But don't let the thin structure fool you.
  2. Very narrow in all diameters; having a cross section that is small in all directions.
    Synonym: twiggy
    thin wire; thin string
    • 2015 July 6, "Assessment of the Impact of Zoledronic Acid on Ovariectomized Osteoporosis Model Using Micro-CT Scanning", in PLOS ONE[2], -DOI:
      Typically, osteoporosis causes the amount of trabecular bone to be reduced and the bone to become thinner, while the intertrabecular space enlarges and the interconnected structure of trabecular bone is disrupted.
  3. Having little body fat or flesh; slim; slender; lean; gaunt.
    thin person
  4. Of low viscosity or low specific gravity.
    Water is thinner than honey.
  5. Scarce; not close, crowded, or numerous; not filling the space.
    The trees of a forest are thin; the corn or grass is thin.
    • 1705, J[oseph] Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: [...] Jacob Tonson, [...], -OCLC:
      Ferrara is very large, but extremely thin of people.
  6. (golf) Describing a poorly played golf shot where the ball is struck by the bottom part of the club head. See fat, shank, toe.
  7. Lacking body or volume; small; feeble; not full.
    a thin, tight-lipped smile
    • 1690, [John] Dryden, Don Sebastian, King of Portugal: [...], London: [...] Jo. Hindmarsh, [...], -OCLC, (please specify the page number):
      thin, hollow sounds, and lamentable screams
  8. Slight; small; slender; flimsy; superficial; inadequate; not sufficient for a covering.
    a thin disguise
  9. (aviation) Of a route: relatively little used.
    • 2016, Hartmut Wolf, Peter Forsyth, David Gillen, Liberalization in Aviation, page 105:
      In short, we previously found that thin routes benefit from an increase in competition in the Spanish airline market when considering routes that were monopoly routes in 2001.
  10. Poor; scanty; without money or success.
    • 1945, Jack Henry, What Price Crime?, page 92:
      Like their friends the "draggers," the "hoisters" or shoplifters are having a thin time these days, [...]

Synonyms

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Antonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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having little thickness or extent from one surface to its opposite
very narrow in all diameters; having a cross section that is small in all directions
having little body fat or flesh; slim; slender; lean; gaunt
of low viscosity or low specific gravity -- see also watery, liquidy, diluted
scarce
golf: of a poorly played golf shot
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout SS Translations.
Translations to be checked: "slim, narrow in size"

Noun

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thin (plural thins)

  1. (philately) A loss or tearing of paper from the back of a stamp, although not sufficient to create a complete hole.
  2. Any food produced or served in thin slices.
    chocolate mint thins
    potato thins
    wheat thins

Translations

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loss of material
food served in thin slices

Verb

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thin (third-person singular simple present thins, present participle thinning, simple past and past participle thinned)

  1. (transitive) To make thin or thinner.
  2. (intransitive) To become thin or thinner.
    The crowds thinned after the procession had passed: there was nothing more to see.
  3. To dilute.
  4. To remove some plants or parts of plants in order to improve the growth of what remains.
    • 2015 September 5, Mark Diacono, "In praise of the Asian pear", in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening)[3], archived from the original on 12 September 2015, page 3:
      So floriferous are Asian pears, and the tree so laden with young fruit, that as the tree approaches maturity it is worth considering thinning the fruit (I can't quite bring myself to thin the flowers) so as to neither overburden the tree for this year nor tire it for the next. Thinning early in the season, while the fruit is small, is ideal.

Derived terms

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Translations

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to make thinner
to become thinner
to dilute
to remove plants

Adverb

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thin (comparative more thin, superlative most thin)

  1. Not thickly or closely; in a scattered state.
    seed sown thin
    • a. 1627 (date written), Francis [Bacon], "Considerations Touching a Warre with Spaine. [...]", in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany Works of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount S. Alban. [...], London: [...] I. Hauiland for Humphrey Robinson, [...], published 1629, -OCLC:
      Spain is a nation thin sown of people.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Middle English

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Etymology 1

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Determiner

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thin (subjective pronoun thou)

  1. alternative form of thin ("thy")

Pronoun

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thin (subjective thou)

  1. alternative form of thin ("thine")

Etymology 2

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Adjective

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thin

  1. alternative form of thinne ("thin")

Mizo

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Etymology

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From Proto-Kuki-Chin *thin, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m-sin.

Noun

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thin

  1. liver

Further reading

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Old Dutch

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Etymology

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From Proto-West Germanic *thin.

Determiner

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thin

  1. thy, your (singular)
  2. thine, yours

Inflection

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Declension of thin
singular masculine feminine neuter
nominative thin thin thin
accusative thinin thina thin
genitive thinis thinro thinis
dative thinin thinro thinin
instrumental thinin thinro thinin
plural masculine feminine neuter
nominative thina thina thina
accusative thina thina thina
genitive thinro thinro thinro
dative thinon thinon thinon
instrumental thin- thin- thin-

Descendants

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Further reading

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  • "thin", in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012

Old Frisian

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Proto-West Germanic *thin, whence also Old English thin, Old High German din, Old Norse thinn.

Determiner

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thin

  1. thy, your (singular)

Declension

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Descendants

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  • West Frisian: dyn

Pronoun

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thin

  1. genitive of thu: thine (yours)

Declension

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Old Frisian personal pronoun declensions
nominative accusative dative genitive
singular 1st person ik mi mi min
2nd person thu thi thi thin
3rd
person 		m hi hine him sin
f hiu, hio hia hire, hiare hire, hiare
n hit hit him sin
plural 1st person wi us us user
2nd person ji ju, jo ju, jo juwer
3rd person hia hia him, hirem, hiarem hira, hiara

Old High German

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Pronunciation

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Determiner

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thin

  1. alternative form of din

References

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  • Wright, Joseph (1906), An Old High German Primer[4], second edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press

Old Saxon

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Etymology 1

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From Proto-West Germanic *thin.

Pronunciation

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Determiner

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thin

  1. thy, your (singular)
  2. thine, yours
Declension
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A user suggests that this Old Saxon entry be cleaned up, giving the reason: "manual declension table should be moved to a template".
Please see the discussion on Requests for cleanup(+) or the talk page for more information and remove this template after the problem has been dealt with.
Declension of thin (strong only)
gender masculine neuter feminine
case singular plural singular plural singular plural
nominative thin thina, thine thin thin thin thin, thine, thina
accusative thinne, thinan, thinen, thinon, thinna thina, thine thin thine, thina thina, thine thina
genitive thines, thinumu thinaro, thinero thines thinaro, thinero, thinoro thinaro, thinera, thinoro, thinaro, thinere thinaro, thinero, thinoro
dative thinum, thinun, thinon, thinumu, thinu, thinemo thinun, thinon, thina thinum, thinun, thinon, thinumu, thinemo thinun, thinon thinero, thinaro, thinera, thinoro, thinaru, thineru, thinera thinun, thinon, thinum


See also

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Old Saxon personal pronouns
nominative accusative dative genitive
singular 1st person ik mi, me, mik mi min
2nd person thu thi, thik thi thin
3rd
person 		m he ina imu is
f siu sia iru ira
n it it is
dual 1st person wit unk unkero, unka
2nd person git ink inker, inka
plural 1st person wi, we us, unsik us user
2nd person gi, ge eu, iu, iuu euwar, iuwer, iuwar, iuwero, iuwera
3rd
person 		m sia im iro
f sia
n siu

References

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  1. Altsachsisches Elementarbuch by Dr. F. Holthausen

Etymology 2

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See here.

Determiner

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thin

  1. instrumental singular masculine/neuter of the

Welsh

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Noun

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thin

  1. aspirate mutation of tin

Mutation

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Mutated forms of tin
radical soft nasal aspirate
tin din nhin thin

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.