Onomatopoeia + と + した = Adjective?

Question

むっちりとした太股 was translated as “plump thighs”. Can I make an onomatopoeia into an adjective by adding とした?

Answer 1

Short answer is no.

In most monolingual dictionaries, those onomatopoeias are noted explicitly as such.

むっちり

1 〘副〙 (多く「と」を伴って用いる) ① 肌に張りがあって肉付きのよいさまを表わす語

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Onomatopoeias describing sounds can rarely be used with とした - ザーザー(rain), しとしと(rain)、ビュービュー(wind) won't work with と(した).

Those describing a state mostly work with とした - ニコニコ(smile), つるつる(polished or slippery). But exceptions are not rare: カチカチとした (hard) doesn't work, it should be カチカチの to modify a noun.