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Glite Dictionary
in the thick of the action

in the thick of the action

6.1
Taking part where an event is most active and intense
  • idiom
translation icon : en el centro de la acción
  • Rapinoe was in the thick of the action throughout the match, making key plays and assisting her teammates.

Examples

  • Stuck out in center field, he longed to be in the thick of the action during the game.

  • We're right in the thick of the action.

    Let's Go to Prison (2006)

  • We're right in the thick of the action at the festival, enjoying every moment.

Synonyms

in full swing
vsin the thick of the action
23 3.5

At the peak of activity when many people are active and working

is about being actively involved in the event's most central and intense part

Antonyms

out of the game
49 5.2

Not taking part in an activity or competition

How Involved

in the thick of the action
6.1
involved
79 3.5
to look on
50 3.4

Surface Forms

in the thick of the action main

Morphology

in + the + thick + of + the + action

Knowing 'thick' (dense/intense) and 'action' (events) gives a reasonable clue that 'in the thick of the action' means being amid intense or crowded activity, so the meaning is partly inferable from the constituents. However, 'in the thick of' is a conventionalized collocation with a figurative nuance ('the most intense or central part') that a B1 learner may not predict fully without prior exposure.

Etymology

In the thick of the action gives a picture of being in the middle of the busiest, most crowded part of something, like standing in the center of a fight or a noisy crowd. Here thick means very crowded and action means the events, so it came to mean 'actively involved at the most intense or central part'.