thick and thin

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

thick and thin (uncountable)

1. Both thickets and thin woodland; (through) all obstacles in a path.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     His tyreling Jade he fiersly forth did push / Through thicke and thin, both over banck and bush [...]

2. (idiomatic) Both good and bad times.
   • 1662, [Samuel Butler], “”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. , London: John Martyn and Henry Herringman, , published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, canto II, page 38:

     As Joan of France, or English Mall, / Through perils both of Wind and Limb, / Through thick and thin she follow'd him, / In ev'ry Adventure h' undertook, / And never him, or it forsook.

   • 1687, John Phillips, transl., Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes:

     I must follow him through thick and thin.

   • 1835 July, Sara Coleridge, Letter to Mrs. Henry Jones:

     He became the panegyrist, through thick and thin, of a military frenzy.

   • 1968 December 8, Henry Cosby, Sylvia Moy, Stevie Wonder (lyrics and music), “I’d Be a Fool Right Now”, in For Once in My Life, performed by Stevie Wonder:

     They say that when the chips are down, girl
     Your love won't stay so long, my friend
     But they don't know that your sweet loving, babe
     Has been around through thick and thin

Translations

See also

• in weal and woe
• in sickness and in health
• for better or worse

Further reading

• “thick and thin”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “through thick and thin”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “through thick and thin”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “through thick and thin” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.