Word.ws English Dictionary

get the thumb

get the thumb verb: to be ejected from a game or match.

Verb

get the thumb (third-person singular simple present gets the thumb, present participle getting the thumb, simple past got the thumb, past participle (UK) got the thumb or (US) gotten the thumb)

  1. To be ejected from a game or match.
    • Rogers got the thumb for shoving the linesman after being called offside.

Forms of get the thumb

third-person singular presentgets the thumb
present participlegetting the thumb
pastgot the thumb
past participle UKgot the thumb
past participle USgotten the thumb

Origin of get the thumb

From the “point thumb over shoulder” motion prescribed in many sports as the referee signal to indicate that a player or coach has been ejected.

Questions about get the thumb

What does get the thumb mean?
Get the thumb means to be ejected from a game or match.
What part of speech is get the thumb?
Get the thumb is a verb.
What is the past tense of get the thumb?
The past tense of get the thumb is got the thumb.

Words near get the thumb in the dictionary

  1. get the point
  2. get the push
  3. get the runaround
  4. get the sack
  5. get the show on the road
  6. get the thumb
  7. get the vapors
  8. get the vapours
  9. get the wall
  10. get the wind up
  11. get the word out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: get the 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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Cite this entry: “get the thumb.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/get_the_thumb. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.