thorough
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See also: Thorough
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]- thoro (informal)
Etymology
[edit]From Middle English thoruȝ, þoruȝ, from Old English þuruh, a byform of Old English þurh, whence comes English through. The adjective derives from the preposition and adverb. The word developed a syllabic form in cases where the word was fully stressed: when it was used as an adverb, adjective, or noun, and less commonly when used as a preposition.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈθʌɹə/, /ˈθʌɹəʊ/
Audio (UK): (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /ˈθʌɹoʊ/
Audio (US, without the hurry–furry merger): (file) - (General American, Canada) IPA(key): /ˈθɝoʊ/
Audio (US, hurry–furry merger): (file) - Rhymes: -ʌɹə, -ʌɹəʊ
Adjective
[edit]thorough (comparative more thorough, superlative most thorough)
- Painstaking and careful not to miss or omit any detail.
- The Prime Minister announced a thorough investigation into the death of a father of two in police custody.
- He is the most thorough worker I have ever seen.
- The infested house needs a thorough cleansing before it will be inhabitable.
- Utter; complete; absolute.
- 1925-29, Mahadev Desai (translator), M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Part I, chapter xviii[1]:
- I was elected to the Executive Committee of the Vegetarian Society, and made it a point to attend every one of its meetings, but I always felt tongue-tied. Dr. Oldfield once said to me, 'You talk to me quite all right, but why is it that you never open your lips at a committee meeting? You are a drone.' I appreciated the banter. The bees are ever busy, the drone is a thorough idler. And it was not a little curious that whilst others expressed their opinions at these meetings, I sat quite silent. Not that I never felt tempted to speak. But I was at a loss to know how to express myself. All the rest of the members appeared to me to be better informed than I. Then it often happened that just when I had mustered up courage to speak, a fresh subject would be started. This went on for a long time.
- 1925-29, Mahadev Desai (translator), M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Part I, chapter xviii[1]:
Synonyms
[edit]- (detailed): comprehensive, rigorous, scrupulous; see also Thesaurus:meticulous or Thesaurus:comprehensive
- (utter; complete; absolute): downright, outright, unmitigated; see also Thesaurus:total
Antonyms
[edit]- (antonym(s) of “not detailed”): cursory, superficial, surface-level
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]detailed
|
utter; complete; absolute
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Preposition
[edit]thorough
- (obsolete) Through. [9th–19th c.]
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- Ye might haue ſeene the frothy billowes fry
Vnder the ſhip, as thorough them ſhe went […]
- 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], line 109:
- You are contented to be led in triumph
Thorough the streets of Rome?
Noun
[edit]thorough (plural thoroughs)
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *terh₂-
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ʌɹə
- Rhymes:English/ʌɹə/2 syllables
- Rhymes:English/ʌɹəʊ
- Rhymes:English/ʌɹəʊ/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with usage examples
- English prepositions
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English terms with quotations
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- British English
- English dialectal terms