Definition of "thickset" in Anglais

adjective

1. Having a relatively short, heavy build.

   • a thickset, muscular figure
   • a thickset workhorse

2. Densely crowded together; made up of things that are densely crowded together; closely planted.

   • a thickset wood
   • a thickset hedge
   • 1581, Thomas Newton (translator), Thebais in Seneca His Tenne Tragedies, London: Thomas Marsh, Act 2, p. 48, […] let me be allowde To lurke behinde this Craggy Rocke, or els my selfe to hyde On backside of some thickset hedge:
   • 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, London: M. Lownes et al., Song 1, p. 11, […] Corineus ran With slaughter through the thick-set squadrons of the foes;

3. Densely covered (with something).

   • a gully thickset with brambles
   • 1583, John Foxe, Acts and Monuments, London: John Day, Book 4, “The tragicall historie of Gregorie the vij. otherwise named Hildebrand,” p. 177, […] in a vessell being thick set with sharpe nayles, he tormented him to the poynt of death:

noun

1. (countable, obsolete) A thick hedge.

   • 1858, Edward Bulwer-Lytton (as Pisistratus Caxton), What Will He Do with It? Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, Volume 4, Book 11, Chapter 7, p. 294, Had Darrell been placed amidst the circumstances that make happy the homes of earnest men, Darrell would have been mirthful; had Waife been placed amongst the circumstances that concentrate talent, and hedge round life with trained thicksets and belting laurels, Waife would have been grave.

2. (uncountable, historical) A stout, twilled cotton cloth; a fustian corduroy, or velveteen.

   • 1812, George Crabbe, Tales, London: J. Hatchard, Tale 4, “Procrastination,” p. 73, When he, with thickset coat of Badge-man’s blue, Moves near her shaded silk of changeful hue;
   • 1829, anonymous contributor, “A Day at Fontainebleau.—The Royal Hunt,” The Monthly Magazine, New Series, Volume 7, No. 37, January 1829, p. 12, His breeches were of the homeliest thickset;

3. (countable, historical) A piece of clothing made from this fabric.