thumb

 
Pronunciation: /θʌm/

noun

  • the short, thick first digit of the human hand, set lower and apart from the other four and opposable to them.
  • the digit of primates or other mammals that corresponds to the human thumb.
  • the part of a glove that covers the thumb.

verb

[with object]
  • 1press, move, or touch (something) with one’s thumb: as soon as she thumbed the button, the door slid open
  • [no object] use one’s thumb to indicate something: he thumbed towards the men behind him
  • 2turn over (pages) with or as if with one’s thumb: I’ve thumbed my address book and found quite a range of smaller hotels [no object]: he was thumbing through USA Today for the umpteenth time
  • wear or soil (a book’s pages) by repeated handling: his dictionaries were thumbed and ink-stained
  • 3request or obtain (a free ride in a passing vehicle) by signalling with one’s thumb: three cars passed me and I tried to thumb a lift he was thumbing his way across France

Phrases

be all thumbs

another way of saying be all fingers and thumbs (see finger)

thumb one's nose at

informal show disdain or contempt for: high-strung and unpredictable, he routinely thumbed his nose at authority

thumbs up (or down)

informal an indication of satisfaction or approval (or of rejection or failure): plans to build a house on the site have been given the thumbs down by the Department of the Environment
[with reference to the signal of approval or disapproval used by spectators at a Roman amphitheatre; the sense has been reversed, as the Romans used ‘thumbs down’ to signify that a beaten gladiator had performed well and should be spared, and ‘thumbs up’ to call for his death]

under someone's thumb

completely under someone’s influence or control: he was very much under the thumb of his father

Derivatives

thumbed

adjective

thumbless

adjective

Origin:

Old English thūma, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch duim and German Daumen, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin tumere 'to swell'. The verb dates from the late 16th century, first in the sense 'play (a musical instrument) with the thumbs'