▪ I. thumby, n. colloq.
(ˈθʌmɪ)
Also thummy, -ie.
[f. thumb n. + -y, dim. suffix.]
A little thumb; a kind of pet-name for the thumb.
| 1811 W. Tennant Anster Concert in Life (1861) 26 He never fashed his thummie. 1859 Lang Wand. India 265 The little finger replied: ‘Who told you so, Thummy, Thummy?’ 1866 ‘R. B. Paul’ Let. in Mem. xx. (1872) 353 Now thumby is beginning to make a grumble. |
▪ II. thumby, a. colloq.
(ˈθʌmɪ)
[f. thumb n. + -y1.]
1. Soiled by thumb-marks.
| 1900 Daily News 11 Jan. 7/2 The report books look as prosaic as any ordinary account books, only very black and ‘thumby’. |
2. Clumsy, ‘all thumbs’. Cf. thumb n. 5 c.
| 1909 R. A. Wason Happy Hawkins 103 One day we was kiddin' him about bein' so thumby. 1915 Pearson's Mag. XXXIX. 28 You have no idea how thumby your fingers are when fixing a bike under shrapnel fire. 1939 X. Herbert Capricornia ix. 122 The box was set down, the stiff buckles of its mildewed straps tackled by a dozen thumby hands. 1974 P. Wright Lang. Brit. Industry vi. 59 Their efficiency is affected when..they are known to be..awkward,..numb-pawed, or thumby. |