thumb
noun/θʌm/
Слово англійською: thumb
Переклад thumb українською: вели́кий па́лець
Детальний опис
- the short, thick finger at the side of the hand, slightly apart from the other four
- She still sucks her thumb when she's worried.
- the part of a glove that covers the thumb
- There's a hole in the thumb.
Word OriginOld English thūma, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch duim and German Daumen, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin tumere ‘to swell’. The verb dates from the late 16th cent., first in the sense ‘play (a musical instrument) with the thumbs’.
Idioms
be all (fingers and) thumbs
- to be awkward with your hands so that you drop things or are unable to do something
hold thumbs
- (South African English) to hope that your plans will be successful or that something will take place in the way that you want it to
- Let's hold thumbs that you get the job.
a rule of thumb
- a practical method of doing or measuring something, usually based on past experience rather than on exact measurement
- As a rule of thumb, you should cook a chicken for 20 minutes for each pound of weight.
stand/stick out like a sore thumb
- to be very easy to notice in an unpleasant way
- The blue building stood out like a sore thumb among the whitewashed villas.
- If you wear a suit to the party, you’ll stand out like a sore thumb.
thumbs up/down
- (informal) used to show that something has been accepted/rejected or that it is/is not a success
- Their proposals were given the thumbs down.
- It looks like it's thumbs up for their latest album.
- He made a thumbs-up sign through the window to tell us everything was fine.
twiddle your thumbs
- to move your thumbs around each other with your fingers joined together
- to do nothing while you are waiting for something to happen
- We can't just sit here twiddling our thumbs and hoping everything will be all right.
under somebody’s thumb
- (informal) (of a person) completely controlled by somebody
- She’s got him under her thumb.