thick as thieves

English

Alternative forms

• thick as two thieves, close as thieves

Etymology

From thick (“friendly, intimate”), first attested in 1827 as "thick as two thieves".

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Adjective

(as) thick as thieves (not comparable)

1. (idiomatic, simile, of friends or members of a group) Intimate, close-knit, tight.
   • 1884, Mark Twain, chapter 30, in Huckleberry Finn:

     So the king sneaked into the wigwam and took to his bottle for comfort, and before long the duke tackled HIS bottle; and so in about a half an hour they was as thick as thieves again, and the tighter they got the lovinger they got, and went off a-snoring in each other's arms.

   • 1904, Fergus Hume, chapter 9, in The Red Window:

     He and Victoria were as thick as thieves, and are about equal in wickedness.

   • 2001 October 26, Tony Karon, “What They're Saying About the War”, in Time, retrieved 4 August 2015:

     President Bush may think he's as thick as thieves with his pal Vladimir Putin, but hopefully someone at the White House is reading the English edition of Pravda.

Usage notes

• Sometimes used with a connotation that the relationship has a suspicious and/or less than respectable quality.

Translations

intimate, close-knit

• Catalan: cul i merda, carn i ungla
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 糖黐豆 (tong⁴ ci¹ dau^6-2)

• Finnish: läheinen (fi), (colloquial) kuin paita ja peppu
• French: copains comme cochons (fr) pl, comme larrons en foire (fr), (informal) comme cul et chemise (fr)
• Hungarian: please add this translation if you can
• Italian: culo e camicia, pappa e ciccia
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: henge sammen som erteris (no)

• Polish: znać się jak łyse konie (pl) (know each other like bald horses)
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: водо́й не разольёшь (vodój ne razolʹjóšʹ)
• Spanish: como uña y mugre
• Turkish: et tırnak