thumb

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   look through a book or other written material

   I thumbed through the report.

2. 2
   noun

   The part of a slider that may be moved linearly along the slider.

   a scroll-bar thumb

3. 3
   verb

   To touch or cover with the thumb.

   to thumb the touch-hole of a cannon

4. 4
   verb

   To turn the pages of (a book) in order to read it cursorily.

   thumb through

5. 5
   verb

   To gesture with the thumb, for example when flagging a ride.

   Oh, look! There’s a car coming! Thumb-no, wave. They probably don’t understand thumbing.

6. 6
   verb

   To hitchhike.

   So I started thumbin' back east, toward my hometown.

7. 7
   verb

   To soil or wear with the thumb or the fingers; to soil, or wear out, by frequent handling.

   He gravely informed the enemy that all his cards had been thumbed to pieces, and begged them to let him have a few more packs.

8. 8
   verb

   To manipulate (an object) with the thumb; especially, to pull back the hammer or open the cylinder of a revolver.

   Fargo palmed out his own revolver, thumbing back the hammer as the barrel came up.

Etymology

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 and Norwegian tomme (“inch”), Norn tum (“thumb”), Swedish tumme (“thumb”), tum (“inch”), Ancient Greek τύμβος (túmbos, “burial mound”). Also compare Welsh tyfu (“to grow”), Latin tumēre (“to swell”), Lithuanian tumėti (“to thicken, clot”), Avestan 𐬀𐬨𐬏𐬙 (amū…