Word.ws English Dictionary

thumbkin

thumbkin noun: an instrument of torture for compressing the thumb; a thumbscrew.

Noun

thumbkin (plural thumbkins)

  1. (historical) An instrument of torture for compressing the thumb; a thumbscrew.
  2. (childish, rare) The thumb.
    • Thumbkin is the pusher.
      Pointer shows us where to go.
      Tall-man wears the thimble,
      And helps us all to sew.1895, Margaret Naomi MacArthur, Kindergarten Review, Finger Play, page 75

Forms of thumbkin

pluralthumbkins

Origin of thumbkin

From thumb + -kin.

Questions about thumbkin

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

Words near thumbkin in the dictionary

  1. thumbing a ride
  2. thumbing down
  3. thumbing one's nose
  4. thumbing through
  5. thumbings
  6. thumbkin
  7. thumbkins
  8. thumbless
  9. thumbless wave
  10. thumblessness
  11. thumblike

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: thumbkin (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: “thumbkin.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/thumbkin. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.