thickset

Etymology

thick + set

adj

1. Having a relatively short, heavy build.
   a thickset, muscular figure
   a thickset workhorse
   He was a thick set man, and of a strong Constitution […] 1654, Samuel Clarke, “The Life of Theodore Beza”, in The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History, London: T.V, page 885
   More than ever Min hated her own thickset, healthy body, her round, red face with its small gray eyes, the mop of auburn hair which Aunt Julie braided so tightly […] 1926, Nalbro Bartley, chapter 1, in Her Mother’s Daughter, New York: George H. Doran
   Things edible would always be respected by a man who had nearly starved to death. The laborers, too, in white smocks, broad and heavy, a thickset personnel, butchers’ men. 1970, Saul Bellow, chapter 6, in Mr. Sammler’s Planet, Penguin, published 1977, page 279
   Standing in her entrance, two men in white silk suits and butterfly-looking lace bow ties, black instrument cases by their side and black-brimmed white hats in their hands–my father, Nestor Castillo, thin and broad-shouldered, and Uncle Cesar, thickset and immense. 1989, Oscar Hijuelos, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 4
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;
   […] though his Beard not oft corrected, Yet neare it growes, not like a Beard neglected From head to heele, his body hath all over, 1635, John Taylor, The olde, old, very olde man: or the age and long life of Thomas Par, London: Henry Gosson
   The beauteous Love-Eye burning in the Heart; From whence Loves Centres endless multiply, As thick-set Spangles of the Sky, Raising a Sting of Joy in ev’ry Part. 1696, Jane Leade, “Solomon’s Porch: or the Beautiful Gate of Wisdom’s Temple”, in A Fountain of Gardens, London
   His [the boar’s] Neck shoots up a thick-set thorny Wood; His bristled Back a Trench impal’d appears, And stands erected, like a Field of Spears. 1700, “Meleager and Atalanta, Out of the Eighth Book of Ovid’s Metamorphosis”, in John Dryden, transl., Fables Ancient and Modern, London: Jacob Tonson, page 106
   My heart is like an appletree Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit; 1862, Christina Rossetti, “A Birthday”, in Goblin Market and Other Poems, London: Macmillan, page 56
   It was for the arc of lanterned boats to close in and to form the thickset audience, armed and impenetrable. 1950, Mervyn Peake, chapter 77, in Gormenghast, London: Eyre and Spottiswoode
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:
   The sides of the Church were so thick set with Pictures, that it seem’d to be made in imitation of Plato’s Den, where one could see nothing but shadowes. 1660, Nathaniel Ingelo, Bentivolio and Urania, London: Richard Marriot, Book 3, p. 134
   A huge cherry-tree grew outside, so close that its boughs tapped against the house, and it was so thick-set with blossoms that hardly a leaf was to be seen. 1908, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 4, in Anne of Green Gables
   […] he came to the house of the King of the Gnomes, which was inside a mountain and as thickset with jewels as the grass with dew on a fine morning. 1929, Carl Grabo, chapter 7, in The Cat in Grand-Father’s House, Chicago: Laidlaw Brothers, page 99

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.
   […] his coat was originally what is called a thickset, but out at the elbows; 1785, John Trusler, chapter 17, in Modern Times: or the Adventures of Gabriel Outcast, volume 2, London: for the author, page 27
   I had observed that our landlord wore, on that memorable morning, a pair of bran new velveteens instead of his ancient thicksets. 1819, Walter Scott, chapter 1, in The Bride of Lammermoor