thickens
Grows more viscous
Thickens means to become or make thicker.
A sauce thickens as it reduces; you thicken gravy with flour.
Fog thickens, plots thicken, crowds thicken.
When the plot thickens, a situation grows more complicated or mysterious—a phrase so common it's often used ironically for minor developments.
Reduced, potent form
- reduceMake smaller in degree
- compressReduce volume by force
- compactTightly packed together
- densifyMake more concentrated
consolidate · evaporate · simmer · boil down · intensify · strengthen · enrich · fortify
concentrate
Reduced, potent form
densify · consolidate · evaporate · simmer · boil down · intensify · strengthen · enrich · fortify · deepen
clot
Coagulated mass
solidify · set · jellify · coalesce · precipitate · clabber · gelate · flocculate · coagulant · fibrin
plot
Storyline or land parcel
- intrigueSecret plotting or fascination
- mysterySomething unexplained or unknown
- suspenseAnxious uncertainty about outcomes
drama · tension · conflict · twist · entangle · deepen · unfold · develop · escalate · muddle
- solidifieshardens, freezes, sets, gels, congeals
- transformationschange, changes, transform, transforms, transformation
thickensthins
Reduces density or concentration
liquefies · waters down · dilutes · loosens · runs
- the plot thickensSituation becomes more involved
- blood is thicker than waterRelatives matter most
- blood is thickerKin bonds trump friendships
- thickening agentSubstance increasing liquid viscosity
- thicker around the middleHaving abdominal girth
- shaving thickens hairFalse belief about whisker growth
thicken, thickened, thickening, thicker, thickener, thickeners