Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Topic: HUMAN

Language: Old English
Origin: thuma

thumb

1 noun
     
thumb
thumb1 [countable]
1HBH the part of your hand that is shaped like a thick short finger and helps you to hold things:
a baby sucking its thumb
She held the coin carefully between finger and thumb.
2 the part of a glove that fits over your thumb
3

be all fingers and thumbs

British English be all thumbs American English informal to be unable to do something in which you have to make small careful movements with your fingers:
Would you do up these buttons for me? I seem to be all thumbs today.
4

the thumbs up/down

informal when an idea or plan is officially accepted or not accepted:
The project was finally given the thumbs up.
Her performance got the thumbs down from the critics.
5

be under somebody's thumb

to be so strongly influenced by someone that they control you completely:
He was still under his father's thumb.

➔ rule of thumb

at rule1 (8)

; ➔ stand/stick out like a sore thumb

at sore1 (6)
Definition of thumb from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English within
the topic HUMAN
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