thick on the ground

thick on the ground (comparative thicker on the ground, superlative thickest on the ground)

1. (UK) Existing, or present, in large numbers or amounts.
   • 1962 March, J. M. Tolson, “The Netherlands Railways today—I: The economic development of the Netherlands Railways”, in Modern Railways, page 170:

     Although the Netherlands occupy only a seventh of the area of the United Kingdom, the population of 11.5 million is as thick on the ground as 890 people per square mile, whereas the comparable figure for the U.K. is 560 per square mile.

• thin on the ground

• “be thick on the ground”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “be thick on the ground” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
• “thick on the ground”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.