thumb.
The shortest and thickest digit of the hand that for humans has the most mobility and can be made to oppose (moved to touch) all of the other fingers.
Meaning & usage
The shortest and thickest digit of the hand that for humans has the most mobility and can be made to oppose (moved to touch) all of the other fingers.
The part of a slider that may be moved linearly along the slider.
a scroll-bar thumb
A thumbnail picture.
A top hatch plate for covering an excavator bucket, used to keep material in the digger bucket after scooping it up, and not letting it spill out.
Where this word comes from
Derived from Middle English thombe, thoume, thoumbe (“thumb”), from Old English þūma (“thumb”), from Proto-West Germanic *þūmō (“thumb”), from Proto-Germanic *þūmô (“thumb”), from Proto-Indo-European *tūm- (“to grow”). Cognate with West Frisian tomme (“thumb”), Dutch duim (“thumb”), Low German Duum (“thumb”), German Daumen (“thumb”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk tomme (“inch”), Norn tum (“thumb”), Swedish tumme (“thumb”), tum (“inch”), Russian дюйм (djujm, “inch”), Ancient Greek τύμβος (túmbos, “burial mound”). Also compare Welsh tyfu (“to grow”), Latin tumēre (“to swell”), Lithuanian tumėti (“to thicken, clot”), Avestan 𐬀𐬨𐬏𐬙 (amūt, “strong”), Sanskrit तुम्र (túmra, “strong, thick”). The parasitic ‐b has existed since the late 13th century. Doublet of tomb.
To touch or cover with the thumb.
to thumb the touch-hole of a cannon
To turn the pages of (a book) in order to read it cursorily.
thumb through
I thumbed through the book and decided not to bother reading it all.
To gesture with the thumb, for example when flagging a ride.
To hitchhike.
So I started thumbin' back east, toward my hometown.
To soil or wear with the thumb or the fingers; to soil, or wear out, by frequent handling.
To manipulate (an object) with the thumb; especially, to pull back the hammer or open the cylinder of a revolver.
To fire (a single action revolver) quickly by pulling the hammer while keeping the trigger depressed.
Where this word comes from
Derived from Middle English thombe, thoume, thoumbe (“thumb”), from Old English þūma (“thumb”), from Proto-West Germanic *þūmō (“thumb”), from Proto-Germanic *þūmô (“thumb”), from Proto-Indo-European *tūm- (“to grow”). Cognate with West Frisian tomme (“thumb”), Dutch duim (“thumb”), Low German Duum (“thumb”), German Daumen (“thumb”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk tomme (“inch”), Norn tum (“thumb”), Swedish tumme (“thumb”), tum (“inch”), Russian дюйм (djujm, “inch”), Ancient Greek τύμβος (túmbos, “burial mound”). Also compare Welsh tyfu (“to grow”), Latin tumēre (“to swell”), Lithuanian tumėti (“to thicken, clot”), Avestan 𐬀𐬨𐬏𐬙 (amūt, “strong”), Sanskrit तुम्र (túmra, “strong, thick”). The parasitic ‐b has existed since the late 13th century. Doublet of tomb.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.