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Reader question: Please explain “thick and thin” in this sentence: “They’ve been firm friends through thick and thin.” My comments: Their friendship is strong because they’ve been through a lot. There have been good times. There have been bad times. They have always been there for one another. Thick and thin are opposites. In terms of friendship, it points to the highs and lows of their relationship. In other words, their friendship is time-tested. You can say they’re all weather friends, not just fair weather friends. They have survived both the smooth and easy, the fine and dandy as well as the rough patches, so to speak. “Thick and thin” reminds me of the marriage vows the newly weds make to one another, you know, “I, John Doe, take you, Mary Smith, to be my wedded wife. To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in thickness or in health, to love and to cherish ’till death do us part….” Oops. It should be in sickness (not thickness) and in health. Thank you for spotting that. But, you know what I mean. Incidentally, thick and thin is actually derived from a phrase describing England’s dense forests, i.e. thicket and thin wood. The thicket refers to the dense bushes the traveler finds difficult to wade their way through. Thin wood, on the other hand, refers to forests with big sparsely scattered trees where it is easy for the traveler to find his way. This, from Phrase.org.uk: | 
