Word.ws English Dictionary

thumbikin

thumbikin is the alternative form of thumbikins.

Meaning of thumbikins

Noun

thumbikins (plural thumbikins)

  1. An instrument of torture for compressing the thumb; a thumbkin or thumbscrew.
    • [S]end me that hag hither; she shall avouch what it was that she hath given to the wretch Dryfesdale, or the pilniewinks and thumbikins shall wrench it out of her finger-joints.1820, [Walter Scott], chapter V, in The Abbot. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and...

Forms of thumbikin

pluralthumbikins

Origin of thumbikin

From thumb + -ikin. Compare bootikin.

Questions about thumbikin

What is thumbikin the alternative form of?
Thumbikin is the alternative form of thumbikins.

Words near thumbikin in the dictionary

  1. thumbholes
  2. thumbholing
  3. thumbier
  4. thumbies
  5. thumbiest
  6. thumbikin
  7. thumbikins
  8. thumbing
  9. thumbing a ride
  10. thumbing down
  11. thumbing one's nose

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: thumbikin (page history and authors); thumbikins (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: “thumbikin.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/thumbikin. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.