thin as a rail

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Idioms and Phrases

Very slender, as in I do not know why she's dieting; she's thin as a rail already . This simile, which uses rail in the sense of “a narrow bar,” has largely replaced such other versions as thin as a lath or rake , although the latter is still common in Britain. [Second half of 1800s]

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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