Word.ws English Dictionary

black thumbs

black thumbs is the plural of black thumb.

Meaning of black thumb

Noun

black thumb (plural black thumbs)

  1. A lack of skill in gardening; brown thumb.
    • I think of doctors as having the equivalent of green thumbs or black thumbs in gardening.2007, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Close to the Bone: Life-Threatening Illness As a Soul Journey, →ISBN
    Antonyms:
    green thumb
  2. (broadly) An inability to make animals or plants in one's care thrive.
    • Before investing in a terrarium or aquarium, however, check your student for "Black Thumb Disease." Nothing is so depressing as to continually keep killing off plants or animals without knowing what's happening to them.1977, Michigan State University Alumni Association Magazine
  3. A person with a black thumb.
    • "Why?" She smiled. "Especially on family occasions like this, he feels he's been something of a black thumb in the Garden of Life."1966, John Leonard, Wyke Regis, page 269
  4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see black, thumb.

Questions about black thumbs

What is black thumbs the plural of?
Black thumbs is the plural of black thumb.

Words near black thumbs in the dictionary

  1. black teatfish
  2. black tern
  3. black terns
  4. black tetra
  5. black thumb
  6. black thumbs
  7. Black Thursday
  8. black tie
  9. black ties
  10. black tin
  11. black tinamou

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: black thumbs (page history and authors); black thumb (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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