Word.ws English Dictionary

thumby

/ˈθʌmi/

thumby noun: a little thumb; diminutive term for thumb.

Noun

thumby (plural thumbies)

  1. (slang) A little thumb; diminutive term for thumb.
    Synonyms:
    pollex, thumb

Adjective

thumby (comparative thumbier, superlative thumbiest)

  1. Clumsy, awkward, maladroit, not dextrous, all thumbs.
    • "Well, I don't tease anybody but the men. I don't tease father or mother or you,—but men are fair game; they are such thumby, blundering creatures, and we can confuse them so."1896, Harriet Beecher Stowe, chapter 29, in The Pearl of Orr's Island: A Story of the Coast of Maine, Boston & New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co
    • […] he was propounding an improvement of Professor Armstrong's Heuristic method, whereby at the cost of three or four hundred pounds' worth of apparatus, a total neglect of all other studies and the undivided attention of a teacher of exceptional gifts, an average child might with a peculiar sort...1904, H.G. Wells, The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth, Book I, Chapter 1
  2. Dirtied by thumb marks.
    • He would distinguish, too, between a library and a news-room, and would find no great attraction in the prospect of supplying the national youth with free but thumby copies of the sixpenny magazines.1914, H.G. Wells, “The Philosopher's Public Library”, in Social Forces in England and America, New York & London: Harper & Bros., page 203

Synonyms of thumby

Forms of thumby

Noun
pluralthumbies
Adjective
comparativethumbier
superlativethumbiest

Origin of thumby

From thumb + -y/-ie (diminutive suffix).

From thumb + -y.

Questions about thumby

What does thumby mean?
Thumby means a little thumb; diminutive term for thumb.
What part of speech is thumby?
Thumby can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce thumby?
Thumby is pronounced /ˈθʌmi/.
What is the plural of thumby?
The plural of thumby is thumbies.

Words near thumby in the dictionary

  1. thumbtip
  2. thumbtips
  3. thumbuster
  4. thumbwheel
  5. thumbwheels
  6. thumby
  7. thumka
  8. thumkas
  9. Thumleima
  10. Thumma
  11. Thummas

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: thumby (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-thumby.ogg.

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