thickening

[ thik-uh-ning ]

noun

1. a making or becoming thick.
2. a thickened part or area; swelling.
3. something used to thicken; thickener.

thickening

/ ˈθɪkənɪŋ /

noun

1. something added to a liquid to thicken it
2. a thickened part or piece

Word History and Origins

Origin of thickening¹

First recorded in 1570–80; thicken + -ing ¹

Example Sentences

In people, chronic high blood pressure causes a thickening of the heart muscles.

From Ars Technica

As a cloud of aerosolized bone dust particles darkened overhead, reinforced by the thickening smell of singed bone, I wondered how much of my donor’s body I was inhaling.

From Nautilus

Over time, a thickening crust of limestone grows to blanket and strengthen the web.

From MIT Technology Review

Being student body president, you’re in the hot seat, and between the sort of thickening of my skin and the experiences I had, I finally was able to really just come to terms with the fact that there’s no path out of this.

From Ozy

Parks notes that grinding old-fashioned oats at home is not a good substitute for commercial oat flour, which is finer and includes the other parts of the grain that serve a nutritional and thickening purpose.

From Washington Post

The baby would have found herself in a fast-moving and quickly thickening forest of huge legs.

From The Daily Beast

When the hern or bitron flies low, the air is gross, and thickening into showers.

From Project Gutenberg

A street car landed him within two blocks of the address on the tag, and Bud walked through thickening fog and dusk to the place.

From Project Gutenberg

The glade was thickening with shadows, but the sunlight still marked the top of an elm and made glorious the zenith.

From Project Gutenberg

Nearer came the sounds and louder, as they spread towards the fort through thickening shadows and the white dews of night.

From Project Gutenberg

Sheet after sheet swept down the mountains like wind-driven clouds of mist thickening into water as they came.

From Project Gutenberg

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