Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A thumb-screw, or set of thumb-screws; the torture by this instrument. See cut under thumb-screw.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An instrument of torture for compressing the thumb; a thumbscrew.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An instrument of torture for compressing the thumb; a thumbscrew.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

thumb +‎ -kin

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Examples

  • "The monks of Vera Cruz can best tell thee where little 'thumbkin' is."

    Sea-Dogs All! A Tale of Forest and Sea Tom Bevan

  • 'thumbkin' soul which Yama receives and carries off in the tale of Satyavant.

    The Religions of India Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume 1, Edited by Morris Jastrow Edward Washburn Hopkins 1894

  • Martyr, she would have preferred to be torn asunder with one jerk, rather than submit to the thumbkin.

    The Getting of Wisdom 2003

  • Sissy stood, little scarlet thumbkin dangling rigidly at her side.

    Even Cowgirls Get The Blues Robbins, Tom 1976

  • [12] The torture of the thumbkin is said to have been introduced into

    Claverhouse Mowbray Morris 1879

  • 'Dance, thumbkin, dance -- dance, ye merry men every one.'

    Ruth Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell 1837

  • Twenty men were hanged on one gibbet in Edinburgh and many others in various parts of the country: crowds were shipped off to the plantations: torture was freely applied, and the ingenious devices of the boot and the thumbkin were in daily requisition. [

    Claverhouse Mowbray Morris 1879

Comments

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  • "Where is Thumbkin? Where is Thumbkin?"

    "Here I am. Here I am."

    "How are you today sir?"

    "Very well I say sir."

    "Run away."

    "Run away."

    I never understood why they ran away.

    March 5, 2007

  • Probably because someone named Thumbkin was lurking about.

    March 5, 2007

  • Someone else named Thumbkin?

    March 5, 2007

  • "Thumbkin" conjures up creepy images for me. A thumb-headed guy in 19th-century garb. *shudder*

    Maybe it's just that palm civet coffee talking....

    March 5, 2007

  • A more creepy definition, from The Winston Dictionary: an instrument of torture formerly used to apply pressure to the thumbs of victims, as to extort a confession. Cf. thumbscrew

    January 16, 2009

  • Mmm. Sort of like that other cutesy-sounding word pilliwinks.

    January 16, 2009