[syn: deepening(a), thickening(a)]
2. becoming more intricate or complex;
- Example: "a thickening plot"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Thickening \Thick"en*ing\, n.
Something put into a liquid or mass to make it thicker.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Thicken \Thick"en\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Thickened; p. pr. &
vb. n. Thickening.]
To make thick (in any sense of the word). Specifically:
[1913 Webster]
(a) To render dense; to inspissate; as, to thicken paint.
[1913 Webster]
(b) To make close; to fill up interstices in; as, to thicken
cloth; to thicken ranks of trees or men.
[1913 Webster]
(c) To strengthen; to confirm. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
And this may to thicken other proofs. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
(d) To make more frequent; as, to thicken blows.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
thickening
adj 1: accumulating and becoming more intense; "the deepening
gloom"; "felt a deepening love"; "the thickening dusk"
[syn: deepening(a), thickening(a)]
2: becoming more intricate or complex; "a thickening plot"
n 1: any material used to thicken; "starch is used in cooking as
a thickening" [syn: thickening, thickener]
2: any thickened enlargement [syn: node, knob, thickening]
3: the act of thickening [syn: thickening, inspissation]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
50 Moby Thesaurus words for "thickening":
adhesiveness, clabbering, clamminess, clotting, coagulation,
colloidality, concretion, congealment, congelation, curdling,
doughiness, gelatination, gelatinity, gelatinization,
gelatinousness, gelling, gluelikeness, gluiness, glutinosity,
glutinousness, gumlikeness, gumminess, heaviness, incrassation,
inspissation, jellification, jelling, jellying, jellylikeness,
lentor, mucilaginousness, pastiness, ropiness, setting, slabbiness,
sliminess, spissitude, stickiness, stodginess, stringiness,
syrupiness, tackiness, tenaciousness, tenacity, thickness,
toughness, treacliness, viscidity, viscosity, viscousness