Brewer's: Thick

Through thick and thin (Dryden). Through evil and through good report; through stoggy mud and stones only thinly covered with dust.

Through perils both of wind and limb She followed him through thick and thin.

Butler: Hudibras.

“Thick and thin blocks” are pulley-blocks with two sheaves of different thickness, to accommodate different sizes of ropes.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z