Meaning & use
thick skull
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Meanings
nouncountableinformalfigurative
A way of describing a person who is slow to understand or who will not take in advice or new ideas.
Grammar: Usually appears in have a thick skull or through someone's thick skull; it describes a person's mind, not a body part.
Patterns
- have a thick skull
- get something through someone's thick skull
I have told him four times, but I cannot get it through that thick skull of his.
Forgive my thick skull, but could you explain the second step again?
Her brother has a thick skull when it comes to directions and always ends up lost.
nouncountable
The literal bone of the head when it is unusually heavy or dense.
Grammar: A plain physical description, often in science or anatomy contexts.
Patterns
- a thick skull
Some dinosaurs had a thick skull that may have been used for head-butting rivals.
The helmet protected him, and his thick skull did the rest, so he walked away with only a headache.
Doctors noted that the thick skull made the scan harder to read.
Word forms
| plural | thick skulls |
|---|
Common combinations
- have a thick skull
- My dad says I have a thick skull because I never listen the first time.
- through a thick skull
- It took a full week to get the new rule through his thick skull.
- a thick skull and a soft heart
- He is stubborn, with a thick skull and a soft heart, and everyone forgives him.
- too thick skulled to
- They were too thick skulled to see the warning signs.
Synonyms and how they differ
- thickhead
- It names the person directly and sounds more like an insult, while thick skull is often used to describe a trait.
- blockhead
- It is gentler and more old-fashioned, and suggests plain silliness rather than stubbornness.
- dunce
- It stresses lack of learning ability and is more about school-style failure than refusing to listen.
Opposites
Word family
- thick-skulled adjective
- slow to understand or stubborn
- thickheaded adjective
- stupid or stubborn
- thick adjective
- informal word for not very intelligent
- skull noun
- the bony part of the head
Commonly confused: thick skull or thick skin?
thick skull vs thick skin
Thick skin means being able to take criticism without being hurt. A thick skull means being slow to understand. They are unrelated.
Practice
After three explanations he still didn't get it. 'Honestly, can't you get this through your ____?' she sighed.
Choose one answer.
Getting something through a thick skull is the idiom for making a slow or stubborn person understand. Thick skin is about handling criticism, so it does not fit.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “thick skull”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.