thin
pronunciation
How to pronounce thin in British English:
UK [θɪn]
How to pronounce thin in American English:
US [θɪn]
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- Verb:
- lose thickness; become thin or thinner
- make thin or thinner
- lessen the strength or flavor of a solution or mixture
- take off weight
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- Adjective:
- of relatively small extent from one surface to the opposite or in cross section
- lacking excess flesh
- very narrow
- having little substance or significance
- not dense
- relatively thin in consistency or low in density; not viscous
- (of sound) lacking resonance or volume
- lacking spirit or sincere effort
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- Adverb:
- without viscosity
Word Origin
- thin
- thin: [OE] Thin denotes etymologically ‘stretched’. It goes back ultimately to the Indo- European base *ten- ‘stretch’, which also produced Latin tenuis ‘thin’ (source of English tenuous) and Latin tendere ‘stretch’ (source of English tend, tense, etc). From this was descended prehistoric Germanic *thunnuz, which has evolved into German dünn, Dutch dun, Swedish tunn, Danish tynd, and English thin.=> tend, tense, tenuous
- thin (adj.)
- Old English þynne "narrow, lean, scanty, not dense; fluid, tenuous; weak, poor," from Proto-Germanic *thunni "thin" (cognates: West Frisian ten, Middle Low German dunne, Middle Dutch dunne, Dutch dun, Old High German dunni, German dünn, Old Norse þunnr, Swedish tunn, Danish tynd), from PIE *tnu- "stretched, stretched out" (hence "thin"), from root *ten- "to stretch" (cognates: Latin tenuis "thin, slender;" see tenet). These our actors ... were all Spirits, and Are melted into Ayre, into thin Ayre. [Shakespeare, "The Tempest," IV.i.150, 1610] "Loose or sparse," hence "easily seen through," with figurative extensions. Related: Thinly; thinness. Thin-skinned is attested from 1590s; the figurative sense of "touchy" is from 1670s.
- thin (v.)
- Old English þynnian "to make thin, lessen, dilute," also intransitive, "become thin," from thin (adj.). Intransitive sense of "to become less numerous" is attested from 1743; that of "to become thinner" is recorded from 1804. Compare similarly formed German dünnen, Dutch dunnen. Related: Thinned; thinning.
Example
- 1. I saw huge protruding ears and thin lips .
- 2. Names of fish were chalked on thin slats of wood .
- 3. Burst housing bubbles have revealed how thin the tax base is .
- 4. This means that the resulting cells can be made very thin .
- 5. Inuit hunters are finding the sea ice too thin to bear their sleds .