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 1380. Kyng and Hermyt [Hazlitt, Early Pop. Poet., i. 15. And chasyd hym ryght fast, Both thorow thyke and thine.

1383. Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 'Reeves Tale,' 146. Forth with 'We hee,' thurgh thikke and thurgh thenne.

1500. Spenser, Fairy Queen, iii. iv. 46. Through thick and thin Those two great champions did attonce pursew The fearefull damzell.

1621. Burton, Anat. Melan., iii. 11. iii. 1. If once enamoured through thick and thin he will go to her.

1678. Cotton, Virgil Travestie (1770), 5. Thro' thick and thin; Half-roasted now, now wet to th' Skin.

1774. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 7. Through thick and thin he swore he'd dash on.

c. 1780. Captain Morris, The Plenipo. Through thick and through thin he bored his way in.

1809. Malkin, Gil Blas [Routledge], 237. One of those spoiled actors who are applauded through thick and thin.

1838. Beckett, Paradise Lost, 10. Yet swear through thick and thin they hate thee.

1860-5. Motley, Hist. Netherlands, ii. 311. To lie daily, through thick and thin was the simple rule prescribed by his sovereign.

1887. St James's Gazette, 26 May. We again see that he is one of the most thick-and-thin adherents of the neo-French technique.

Thicker, subs. (Harrow).—Thucydides: the translation of which is set in the Upper School.

Thicklips, subs. (old).—A negro (in quot. = a Moor). Whence thick-lipped.

1593. Shakspeare, Tit. Andron., iv. 3. 175. Come on, you thick-lipp'd slave. Ibid. (1602), Othello, i. 1. 66. What a full fortune does the thick lips owe, If he can carry't thus.

Thick-'un, subs. phr. (common).—A sovereign; 20s.: also a crown piece; 5s. Hence to smash (= change) or blue a thick-'un.

1863. Cornhill Mag., vi. 648. If you like I will send a few thickuns.

1871. Aitken, House Scraps. Have you sufficient confidence in me to lend me a sovereign? Oh! yes, I've the confidence, but I haven't the thick 'un'.

1886. P. Clarke, New Chum in Australia, 143. If he has a drought within him, and a friend or a thick 'un to stand by him, he is a poor weak fool to refuse.

1888. Payn, Eavesdropper, ii. ii. 'Can you smash a thick-'un for me?' inquired one, handing his friend a sovereign.

1896. Farjeon, Betrayal of John Fordham, iii. 277. With three peas and a thimble I've earnt many a thick 'un.

1897. Marshall, Pomes, 26. He wanted his thick 'un to canter home with forty or fifty more.

Thief, subs. (old).—A term of reproach: not necessarily a robber. Thus (Grose): 'You are a murderer and a thief, you have killed a baboon and stolen his face; vulgar abuse.'

1440. Sir Perceval [Camden Soc.], 923. Fiftene [yogh]eres es it gane Syne me my brodire hade slane, Now hadde the theefe undirtane, To sla us alle thenne.

1603. Shakspeare, Meas. for Meas., v. 1. 40. Angelo is an adulterous thief.

2. (old).—A mushroom growth on a burning wick which makes the candle gutter; a waster: see Bishop (Grose)

[1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Fungo, that firy round in a burning candle called a bishop.]

1622. May, Virgil, 'Georgic,' i. Their burning lamps the storm ensuing show, Th' oil sparkles, thieves about the snuff do grow.

d. 1635. Gibbes, Works, iv. 355. Many break themselves by intemperate courses, as candles that have thieves in them.

1636. Ward, Coal from the Altar [Sermons]. The least known evil unrepented of is as a thief in the candle.