# thorough
## English
### Alternative forms

* thoro (informal)

### Etymology

From Middle English thoruȝ, þoruȝ, from Old English þuruh, a byform of Old English þurh, whence comes English through. The adjective derives from the preposition and adverb. The word developed a syllabic form in cases where the word was fully stressed: when it was used as an adverb, adjective, or noun, and less commonly when used as a preposition.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈθʌɹə/, /ˈθʌɹəʊ/
* Audio (UK):(file)
* (General American) IPA: /ˈθʌɹoʊ/
* Audio (US, without the hurry–furry merger):(file)
* (General American, Canada) IPA: /ˈθɝoʊ/
* Audio (US, hurry–furry merger):(file)
* Rhymes: -ʌɹə, -ʌɹəʊ

### Adjective

thorough (comparative more thorough, superlative most thorough)
* Painstaking and careful not to miss or omit any detail.
    The Prime Minister announced a thorough investigation into the death of a father of two in police custody.
    He is the most thorough worker I have ever seen.
    The infested house needs a thorough cleansing before it will be inhabitable.
* Utter; complete; absolute.
** 1925-29, Mahadev Desai (translator), M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Part I, chapter xviii:
    I was elected to the Executive Committee of the Vegetarian Society, and made it a point to attend every one of its meetings, but I always felt tongue-tied. Dr. Oldfield once said to me, 'You talk to me quite all right, but why is it that you never open your lips at a committee meeting? You are a drone.' I appreciated the banter. The bees are ever busy, the drone is a thorough idler. And it was not a little curious that whilst others expressed their opinions at these meetings, I sat quite silent. Not that I never felt tempted to speak. But I was at a loss to know how to express myself. All the rest of the members appeared to me to be better informed than I. Then it often happened that just when I had mustered up courage to speak, a fresh subject would be started. This went on for a long time.

#### Synonyms

* (detailed): comprehensive, rigorous, scrupulous; see also Thesaurus:meticulous or Thesaurus:comprehensive
* (utter; complete; absolute): downright, outright, unmitigated; see also Thesaurus:total

#### Antonyms

* (antonym(s) of “not detailed”): cursory, superficial, surface-level

#### Derived terms

* thoroughbred
* thoroughfare
* thoroughgoing
* thoroughly
* thoroughness
* thoroughsped
* thorough-stitch

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Preposition

thorough
* (archaic) Through. [9th–19th c.]
** 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:Ye might haue ſeene the frothy billowes fry Vnder the ſhip, as thorough them ſhe went […]
** 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], line 109:You are contented to be led in triumph Thorough the streets of Rome?
** 1797–1798 (date written; revised 1817), S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In Seven Parts.”, in Sibylline Leaves: A Collection of Poems, London: Rest Fenner, […], published 1817, →OCLC, page 6:At length did cross an Albatross: / Thorough the fog it came; […]

### Noun

thorough (plural thoroughs)
* (UK, dialect) A furrow between two ridges, to drain off the surface water.
** 1733, William Ellis, Chiltern And Vale Farming Explained:The Ignorance and Idleness of the Plowman, who either goes so shallow, or plows his Thoroughs so wide, or misses Part of the Ground.