Word Direct Answers

What does "thin" mean?

Thin: Rare; not dense or thick; -- applied to fluids or soft mixtures; as, thin blood; thin broth; thin air. Shak. In the day, when the air is more thin. Bacon. Satan, bowing low His gray dissimulation, disappeared, Into thin air diffused. Milton.

Additional senses

  1. 2.Not close; not crowded; not filling the space; not having the individuals of which the thing is composed in a close or compact state; hence, not abundant; as, the trees of a forest are thin; the corn or grass is thin. Ferrara is very large, but extremely thin of people. Addison.
  2. 3.Not full or well grown; wanting in plumpness. Seven thin ears . . . blasted with the east wind. Gen. xli.
  3. 4.5. Not stout; slim; slender; lean; gaunt; as, a person becomes thin by disease.
  4. 5.Wanting in body or volume; small; feeble; not full. Thin, hollow sounds, and lamentable screams. Dryden.
  5. 6.Slight; small; slender; flimsy; wanting substance or depth or force; superficial; inadequate; not sufficient for a covering; as, a thin disguise. My tale is done, for my wit is but thin. Chaucer. Note: Thin is used in the formation of compounds which are mostly self-explaining; as, thin-faced, thin-lipped, thin-peopled, thin- shelled, and the like. Thin section. See under Section.
  6. 7.Not thickly or closely; in a seattered state; as, seed sown thin. Spain is thin sown of people. Bacon.
  7. 8.To make thin (in any of the senses of the adjective).
  8. 9.To grow or become thin; -- used with some adverbs, as out, away, etc.; as, geological strata thin out, i. e., gradually diminish in thickness until they disappear.

Sources