Word.ws English Dictionary

thumbs-up

thumbs-up is the alternative form of thumbs up.

Meaning of thumbs up

Noun

thumbs up (plural thumbs ups or thumbs up)

  1. A gesture signifying approval or okay; a thumb pointing up out of a fist.
    • He smiled and gave a big thumbs up.
    Antonyms:
    thumbs down
  2. (figuratively) An approval or OK.
    • We got the thumbs up to go ahead with the project.
    Antonyms:
    thumbs down

Verb

thumbs-up (third-person singular simple present thumbs-ups, present participle thumbs-upping, simple past and past participle thumbs-upped)

  1. (transitive) To approve with a thumbs-up sign.
    • He stood outside the dressing room and thumbs-upped or thumbs-downed each choice.2015, Anne Wagener, Borrow-A-Bridesmaid
    Antonyms:
    thumbs-down

Antonyms of thumbs-up

Forms of thumbs-up

Noun
pluralthumbs-ups
pluralthumbs-up
Verb
third-person singular presentthumbs-ups
present participlethumbs-upping
past participlethumbs-upped
pastthumbs-upped

Questions about thumbs-up

What does thumbs-up mean?
Thumbs-up means to approve with a thumbs-up sign.
What is thumbs-up the alternative form of?
Thumbs-up is the alternative form of thumbs up.
What part of speech is thumbs-up?
Thumbs-up is a verb.
What is the past tense of thumbs-up?
The past tense of thumbs-up is thumbs-upped.

Words near thumbs-up in the dictionary

  1. thumbs ups
  2. thumbs-down
  3. thumbs-downed
  4. thumbs-downing
  5. thumbs-downs
  6. thumbs-up
  7. thumbs-upped
  8. thumbs-upping
  9. thumbs-ups
  10. thumbsbreadth
  11. thumbsbreadths

Source and license

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