thicket

noun thick·et \ ˈthi-kət \

|Updated on: 11 Aug 2018

Examples: thicket in a Sentence

Definition of thicket

1 : a dense growth of shrubbery or small trees : copse

2 : something resembling a thicket in density or impenetrability : tangle

a political thicket

a thicket of reporters

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thickety

play \ˈthi-kə-tē\ adjective

See thicket defined for English-language learners

See thicket defined for kids

Examples of thicket in a Sentence

a dense thicket of rosebushes
flushed a pheasant from a thicket of willows

Recent Examples of thicket from the Web

Both Trump and Cohen, who deny wrongdoing, face a thicket of legal trouble in the growing scandal.

— michael finnegan, latimes.com, "Tracing the twists, turns and falsehoods of Trump's Stormy Daniels scandal," 4 May 2018
Cake, the Boston startup Chen cofounded, has developed a website designed to help users navigate the thicket of legal documents and health care proxies associated with end-of-life planning.

— robert weisman, BostonGlobe.com, "End-of-life software has a problem: Users who don’t want to think about it," 10 Feb. 2018
The search has plunged her into a thicket of tax sales and foreclosures, revealing a tortuous path of ownership that is not unusual for Baltimore’s thousands of vacant homes.

— tim prudente, baltimoresun.com, "With ownership in question, lawsuit stalls over deadly West Baltimore collapse," 12 July 2018
The region is, in many ways, a stepchild, a place where most people trace their ethnic roots to Myanmar or China, and where a thicket of separatist militias have waged decades-long fights for independence.

— yirmiyan arthur, Fox News, "In cricket-mad India, 1 distant corner is crazy for soccer," 29 June 2018
And whereas Russia has no challenge moving its troops inside its own territory, a thicket of peacetime rules has complicated military movements within Europe.

— michael birnbaum, Washington Post, "How U.S. troops could get stuck in a traffic jam on their way to fend off war with Russia," 24 June 2018
Brexit is an excruciatingly complicated proposition—a thicket of regulations and relationships whose complexity seems to surprise everyone involved.

— georgina voss, The Atlantic, "Brexit Could Cripple Britain’s Ports," 20 June 2018
The thicket of sound — was that fish moving in nets?

— peter dobrin, Philly.com, "The Crossing choir premieres vivid new Kile Smith work," 1 July 2018
The sound was coming from a speaker hidden in a thicket.

— sara benincasa, Longreads, "Remembrance of Folks Past: A Reading List of the Stories We Tell," 22 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'thicket.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of thicket

Middle English *thikket, from Old English thiccet, from thicce thick

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: before 12th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

thicket Synonyms

Synonyms

brake, brushwood, chaparral, coppice, copse, covert;

Related Words

canebrake;

brush, bush, scrub, scrubland;

bramble, jungle, tangle;

grove, hedge, stand, woodlot;

forest, greenwood, wildwood, wood, woodland;

Other Botany Terms

annual, burgeon, chloroplast, nomenclature, succulent, sylvan, xylem

THICKET Defined for English Language Learners

thicket

noun

Definition of thicket for English Language Learners

: a group of bushes or small trees that grow close together

THICKET Defined for Kids

thicket

noun thick·et \ ˈthi-kət \

Definition of thicket for Students

: a thick usually small patch of bushes or low trees

Learn More about thicket

See words that rhyme with thicket Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for thicket Spanish Central: Translation of thicket Nglish: Translation of thicket for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of thicket for Arabic speakers Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about thicket

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thicket

Definition of thicket

thickety

Examples of thicket in a Sentence

Recent Examples of thicket from the Web

Origin and Etymology of thicket

thicket Synonyms

Synonyms

Related Words

Other Botany Terms

THICKET Defined for English Language Learners

thicket

Definition of thicket for English Language Learners

THICKET Defined for Kids

thicket

Definition of thicket for Students

Learn More about thicket

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