What is the meaning of ‘thick and fast’?
(N. N. Chezhian, Chennai)
The idiom is mostly used in informal contexts to mean that things are coming at you very quickly and in great numbers. Another expression which has the same meaning is ‘fast and furious’.
*During the press conference, the questions came thick and fast.
In Old English, both ‘thick’ and ‘fast’ meant ‘close together’. The idiom suggests that things are coming at you so quickly that they seem to be joined or ‘fastened’ to each other. Since the flow is uninterrupted, you get little or no time to react.
S. UPENDRAN
upendrankye@gmail.com
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