I came across this phrase around 20 years ago, and have always understood it to mean 'most of'. I might complain about having to pay "the thick end of £4" for a coffee, when it cost somewhere between £3.00 and £3.99. That meaning sounds fairly obvious to me. I'm in the UK.
Imagine my surprise when I used it in company recently, and it was interpretted differently. That a "journey would take the thick end of 9 hours" was received as not as the "around 8 hours 45 minutes" that I meant, but as "over 9 hours, possibly a lot over". Is this reasonable?
I have looked on the net, and the best I can come up with was this (right at the bottom, References in classic literature) which has many examples, but still no definition.
Can anyone find a published definition, an argument for what the interpretation should be, or at least moral support for my interpretation?
Answer
You are correct!
the thick end of OED
It is a British idiom. Oxford dictionary explains it as:
(informal) The greater part of (something)
"he was borrowing the thick end of £750 every week."
Your sentence "journey would take the thick end of 9 hours" in this context, roughly means, it will take almost 9 hours, but not more than 9 hours. In other words, it will take greater part of 9 hours.
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