Word.ws English Dictionary

thumbikins

thumbikins noun: an instrument of torture for compressing the thumb; a thumbkin or thumbscrew. Also the plural of thumbikin.

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...

Also used as

thumbikins is also the plural of thumbikin.

Forms of thumbikins

pluralthumbikins
alternative formthumbikin

Origin of thumbikins

From thumb + -ikin + -s. Compare bootikin.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Questions about thumbikins

What does thumbikins mean?
Thumbikins means an instrument of torture for compressing the thumb; a thumbkin or thumbscrew.
What part of speech is thumbikins?
Thumbikins is a noun.
What is the plural of thumbikins?
The plural of thumbikins is thumbikins.

Words near thumbikins in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “thumbikins.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/thumbikins. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.