thickening

English

Etymology

From thicken + -ing.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈθɪkənɪŋ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

thickening (countable and uncountable, plural thickenings)

1. The process of making something, or becoming, thick or viscous.
2. A substance, usually a source of starch, used to thicken a sauce.
3. A thickened part of a structure.
   • 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page 6:

     […] the inner layer (of nearly equally large cells) lacks the regular semiannular or annular thickenings of most other leafy liverworts […]

   • 1902, Edwin Hurry Fenwick, Obscure Diseases of the Urethra, page 30:

     They disappear at once on slightly relaxing the air-pressure, whilst true incipient thickenings of the surface remain white and unpliably stiff.

Derived terms

• antithickening
• hyperthickening
• shear-thickening
• thickening agent
• thickening layer
• thickening ring
• thickening time

Translations

the process of making something, or becoming, thick or viscous

• Bulgarian: сгъстяване (bg) n (sgăstjavane)
• Finnish: sakeutus (fi)
• French: épaississement (fr) m
• German: Dickwerden
• Hungarian: sűrűsödés (hu), besűrűsödés (hu), sűrítés (hu), besűrítés
• Italian: ispessimento (it) m
• Portuguese: espessamento m
• Russian: сгуще́ние (ru) n (sguščénije)
• Spanish: espesamiento m
• Swedish: redning (sv)

a substance, usually a source of starch, used to thicken a sauce

• Bulgarian: сгъстител m (sgăstitel)
• Finnish: suuruste (fi), sakeute
• French: épaississant (fr) m
• German: Verdickungsmittel (de) n
• Hungarian: sűrítőanyag, dúsítóanyag, ^{(please verify)} habarás (hu), ^{(please verify)} rántás (hu)
• Italian: addensante (it) m or f
• Portuguese: espessante m
• Spanish: espesante m
• Swedish: redning (sv) c

Verb

thickening

1. present participle and gerund of thicken

Adjective

thickening (not comparable)

1. Beginning to thicken, becoming thicker.
   • 1960 January, G. Freeman Allen, “"Condor"—British Railways' fastest freight train”, in Trains Illustrated, page 48:

     From Keighley onwards we had obviously returned to civilisation, for the surrounding country was now studded with the sodium street lights of suburbia and a thickening industrial haze was blotting out the moon.

Derived terms

• nonthickening
• thickeningly

References

• “thickening”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• kitchening