thumb

Pluralthumbs

Formsthumbs, thumbing, thumbed

1. 1
   nouncountable

   The short, thick digit of the hand that has the most mobility and can move to touch each of the other fingers.

   A blister formed on her thumb after hours of gardening.

   Most primates have a thumb that can grip branches firmly.

   Note

   The anatomical sense every other one grows from. Old English þūma goes back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to grow," a fitting source for the stout, thick-set digit. Its relatives are easy to spot: Dutch duim, German Daumen, Swedish tumme. The b is a latecomer. Old English had none, and Middle English wrote both thoume and thombe before the b-spelling won out.

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To turn the pages of a book, flipping through them in order to read it quickly and casually.

   She thumbed the dictionary, searching for an unfamiliar word.

   Travelers often thumb a guidebook before deciding where to eat.

   Similarperuse

   Note

   A verb that wants a preposition: you thumb through a book. Over works too. Railway Magazine in 1948 pictures a driver "thumbing over his Customs papers with his feet up." The phrase suggests speed and a certain indifference, close to flip through. That sets it apart from the plain touching sense, which takes its object directly.

3. 3
   verbtransitive or intransitive

   To hitchhike: to travel by soliciting free rides from passing drivers, typically by signaling with an extended thumb.

   She thumbed her way from Denver to Seattle over two weeks.

   Broke and far from home, the students decided to thumb back to campus.

   Similarhitchhike, hitch

   Note

   The road's own verb, built on the hitchhiker's raised thumb. Used without an object, it takes a direction: thumbing back east, thumbing home. With down, it means flagging a vehicle. Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster's Me and Bobby McGee (1969) has Bobby flag down a truck this way, and Smoky Mountain Rain (1980) uses the same phrasing.

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To touch or cover something with the thumb.

   The sculptor thumbed the clay, smoothing its surface.

   Pilgrims thumb the worn stone of the statue for luck.

   Similartouch, rub, press, finger, handle

5. 5
   nouncolloquialcountable

   A small preview image, a thumbnail, that stands in for a larger picture or file.

   She scrolled through a wall of thumbs looking for the right shot.

   Hover over the thumb to see the image at full size.

   Similarthumbnail, preview

   Note

   Shorthand of the web: thumbnail, clipped. The short form keeps the casual ring of a clipping, so thumbnail is the safer choice in careful or formal writing. In interface talk it can also collide with the slider's draggable part. Where both could be meant, as with a gallery beside a scroll bar, spell out thumbnail.

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To handle or operate something with one's thumb, in particular to cock a revolver's hammer or swing open its cylinder.

   He thumbed the hammer and the revolver clicked into place.

   Experienced shooters thumb the cylinder open to eject spent casings.

   Similarcock

   Note

   In gun handling, the verb travels with particles: thumbing back the hammer, thumbing the cylinder open, thumbing in a cartridge. The particle tells you which motion is meant. Every one of these actions readies or loads a revolver rather than firing it. Firing by thumb belongs to the rapid-fire technique.

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To soil or wear something out through frequent handling with the thumb or fingers.

   Decades of browsing had thumbed the encyclopedia's pages soft.

   Devout readers thumb their prayer books until the gilt edges fade.

   Similarwear, soil, handle

   Note

   Here the thumb leaves a mark instead of doing a job: what builds up is grime and wear, one handling at a time. The passive suits it, because the handlers rarely matter. In Macaulay's History of England a man complains that all his cards "had been thumbed to pieces." Keep it apart from the quick page-turning sense: leafing through a book once is that, and handling it until it frays is this.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   The part of a slider control that the user drags linearly along its track to set a value.

   She dragged the thumb to the far end of the brightness slider.

   On a scrollbar, the thumb's size often reflects how much content is visible.

   Similarhandle, knob

   Note

   Interface vocabulary, named after the digit that so often does the dragging. The thumb rides a fixed track, and wherever it rests is the current setting. The usual compound in technical writing is scroll-bar thumb. Keep it distinct from the track itself: the thumb is the piece that moves, and the track is the path it moves along.

9. 9
   verbtransitive

   To fire a single-action revolver rapidly by repeatedly drawing back the hammer with the thumb while holding the trigger down.

   The outlaw thumbed his revolver, emptying all six chambers in seconds.

   Some shooters thumb a single-action revolver to fire faster than the trigger alone permits.

   Note

   A shooting technique, and a narrow one, tied specifically to the single-action revolver. The trigger stays held down, and the thumb works the hammer to fire each shot. Hans-Christian Vortisch's GURPS Tactical Shooting (2011) specifies the thumb of the same hand that holds the trigger. Don't confuse it with the cocking sense, which only readies the gun.

10. 10
    nouncountable

    A top hatch plate that covers an excavator bucket, holding scooped material inside so it does not spill out.

    The mechanic replaced the worn thumb on the excavator's bucket.

    Closing the thumb let the crew lift loose gravel without losing any over the side.

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