thimble

thimble, n.
  (ˈθɪmb(ə)l)
  Forms: α. 1 þ{yacu}mel, 5–6 thymelle, -yl(le, thymle, themel, -elle, -yl(le, (5 thomelle, timmele), 9 dial. thimmel. β. 5 thymbyl(l, thomble, 6 thymble, -bel(l, -bil(l, thumble, (tymble), 6–7 thimbell, 6– thimble.
  [OE. þ{yacu}mel, f. þ{uacu}ma thumb + -el, -le, suffix forming names of instruments: cf. handle. The later Eng. form has developed a b after m, as in humble, nimble, etc. ON., þumall meant the thumb of a glove; perh. a leather thumbstall was the earliest form of thimble; metal thimbles were app. introduced in the 17th c.]
  † 1. A sheath or covering for the thumb or finger; a fingerstall. Obs. (Only OE.)

c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 150 Wyrc þonne þymel to.

  2. a. A bell-shaped sheath of metal (formerly of leather) worn on the end of the finger to push the needle in sewing.
  tailor's, upholsterer's, etc. thimble, a similar metal sheath open at both ends; sail-maker's thimble = palm n.² 5. knight of the thimble, a tailor: see knight n. 12 c.

α c 1412 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 682 Look whedir In þis purs þer be any croyse or crouche, Sauf nedel and þrede, & themel [MS. Reg. thymelle] of leþer. 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 578/29 Digitale, a themyl. 1483 Cath. Angl. 383/1 A Themelle (A. Thymbylle, Thymle). 1488 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 80 A thing of gold with a top like a timmele. a 1568 in Bannatyne Poems (Hunter. Cl.) 396 With elwand, scheir and thymmill.

β c 1440 Promp. Parv. 491/1 Thymbyl, theca,..digita. 14.. Debate Carpenter's Tools 18 in Hazl. E.P.P. I. 80 Ȝis, ȝis, seyd the wymbylle, I ame als rounde as a thymbyll. 1530 Palsgr. 280/2 Thymble to sowe with, deyl. 1591 Florio 2nd Fruites 5, I haue neither needle, thred, nor thimble. 1664 Power Exp. Philos. i. 5 The Common Fly..her eyes are..most neatly dimpled with innumerable little cavities like a small grater or thimble. 1700 Congreve Way of World iii. iii, Hast thou ne'er a brass thimble clinking in thy pocket? 1793 Girlhood M. J. Holroyd (1896) 253, I have worked with my Thimble, and like it extremely. 1812 [see knight n. 12 c]. 1841 Moore Young Jessica i, The safest shield against the darts Of Cupid, is Minerva's thimble.

  b. Thimble and Bodkin Army (Eng. Hist.): a nickname of the Parliamentary Army of the Civil War: see quots.

1647 May Hist. Parl. ii. vi. 97 The poorer sort, like that Widow in the Gospel, presented their Mites also; insomuch that it was a common Jeer of men disaffected to the Cause, to call it the Thimble- and Bodkin-Army. 1884 S. Dowell Taxes in Eng. II. i. 3 On the parliamentary side the subscriptions of silver offerings included even such little personal articles as those that suggested the term, the ‘Thimble and Bodkin’ army.

  c. A thimble or similar article as used by a thimblerigger: see thimblerig 1.

1716 Gay Trivia ii. 166 Nor try the Thimble's Cheats. 1742 Fielding Jos. Andrews ii. iii, A person travelling to a neighbouring fair with the thimble and button. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. l, Gathered round a pea and thimble table. 1909 Q. Rev. July 173 A conjuror..astonishing a simple audience with the pea-and-thimble trick.

  3. The ring or socket in the heel of a gate which turns on the hook or pin in the gate-post. local.

1550 Hawkhurst Ch. Acc. in Archæol. Cantiana V. 64 For a thymble to the churche gate ij{supd}. 1627 MS. Acc. St. John's Hosp., Canterb., For ij thimbles for the beane garden gate xvj d. 1804 Trans. Soc. Arts XXII. 83 The upper thimble should be fixed..nearer the farther side of the heel of the gate than the lower thimble. 1881 Leicestersh. Gloss.

  4. Naut. A broad ring of metal, having a concave outer surface, around which the end of a rope is spliced, so that the thimble forms an eye to the rope.

1711 W. Sutherland Shipbuild. Assist. 132 Thimbles, large..34. Ordinary..118. 1775 N. D. Falck Day's Diving Vessel 50 Each cable has a large thimble spliced in at one end, through which each alternate cable is reeved. 1860 Merc. M. Mag. VII. 113 A leach-line is..carried through thimbles.

  5. In various technical applications. a. Mech. A ring, tube, or similar part, e.g. a sleeve, bushing, ferrule, etc.; often in comb., as thimble-coupling, thimble-joint, etc.: see 9. b. The outer casing of a rifle-ball. c. Pottery: A rest for placing the ware during glost-firing. d. Dentistry: see quot. e. A cone of fat-free paper used in a fat-extraction apparatus. f. = thimble-rubber in 9. g. See quot.

a. 1789 Trans. Soc. Arts VII. 179 Thimbles made of wire, twisted in the slit of the harpoon. 1831 J. Holland Manuf. Metal I. 184 Fitting into the holes bushes or thimbles to give them the greater strength. 1877 Knight Dict. Mech., Thimble... 3. (Machinery.) a. A sleeve or tube through which a bolt passes, and which may act as a stay. b. A ferrule to expand a tube; specifically, a ferrule for boiler-tubes. 4. A sleeve around a stove-pipe when it passes through a wall or ceiling. 1881 Greener Gun 84 The charge is put in a small steel thimble.

b. c 1860 H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 11 The thimble expands and rifles the ball. 1900 Brit. Med. Jrnl. No. 2053. 1156 The thimble or shell of the Mauser and Lee-Metford. Ibid., The core is of hardened lead, and the thimble composed of copper and nickel.

c. 1901 [see thimble-picker in 9]. 1910 Rep. Lead Comm. (Parl. Pap. Eng.), Placing the ware on rests with pointed projections..‘Thimbles’ similar in shape to a sewing thimble,..provided with a single horn.

d. 1877 Knight Dict. Mech. 2554/1 The extension thimble of the dentist is a prong on the end of the thimble, used to reach into the mouth to hold the foil or a compress, while operating on the teeth.

e. 1901 Jrnl. Exper. Med. 25 Mar. 515 This residue was then ground up with sand, placed in a fat-extraction thimble and extracted again.

f. 1909 Cent. Dict. Suppl., Thimble,..pl., a tradename for crude india-rubber from the lower Kongo and Loanda in small balls of a gray color, darker outside.

g. 1541 R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Chirurg. L iij, Thyrdly a seame incarnatyfe is made with egal themylls made of towe well wrythen & sklenderly.

  6. Applied (usually in pl.) to certain flowers and plants, or parts of them, e.g. (a) the Foxglove, also known as Fairy or Witches' Thimbles; (b) the Sea Campion; (c) the Harebell; (d) the cup of an acorn. See also Lady's Thimble, lady n. 18 b.

1873 Browning Red Cotton Night-Cap Country i. 150 Nor its fine thimble fits the acorn top. 1878 Britten & Holland Plant n., Fairy Thimbles, Digitalis purpurea. 1881 J. A. Sidey in Mod. Scot. Poets 396 Whaur the witch thummles bloom. 1886 Britten & H. Plant-n., Thimble, (1) Digitalis purpurea..(2) Silene maritima. 1894 Daily News 28 Apr. 6/5 The tall foxglove, with its graduated ‘thimbles’.

  7. Thieves' slang. A watch.

1812 in J. H. Vaux Flash Dict. 1834 W. H. Ainsworth Rookwood iii. v, My thimble of ridge. 1901 W. S. Walker In the Blood xiii. 138 Silver money, and a watch and chain, or, in thieves' language, ‘white-lot’ and ‘thimble and slang’.

  8. = thimbleful.

1841 Hood Tale of Trumpet xii, [They] never swallowed a thimble the less Of something the Reader is left to guess. 1865 Bushnell Vicar Sacr. Introd. (1868) 24 Such thimbles of meaning as can be confidently managed.

  9. attrib. and Comb., as thimble-case, thimble-finger, thimble-maker, thimble-top; thimble-crowned, thimble-like, thimble-sealed, thimble-shaped, thimble-sized adjs.; thimble-belt, a kind of cartridge-belt; thimble-berry (thimble blackberry), the black raspberry of America, Rubus occidentalis, so called from the shape of its receptacle; any of several other North American raspberries having thimble-shaped fruit; thimble-coupling: see quot.; thimble-grater, a species of gastropod shell; thimble-joint: see quot.; thimble lily, a name of the Australian liliaceous plant Blandfordia nobilis, with flowers in racemes; thimble-limpet, a West Indian species of limpet, so called from its shape; thimble-man = thimblerigger; thimble-picker, a young person employed in a pottery to pick from among the used thimbles (see sense 5 c) those that can be used a second time: so thimble-picking; thimble-pie: see quots.; thimble-plating, the formation of a cylindrical boiler-shell or a flue by successive slightly overlapping rings of plate; thimble-rubber: see quots.; thimble-screwer Criminals' slang, one who steals watches or ‘thimbles’ (sense 7); cf. screwer 2; thimble-shift, -shifting, the shifting of the pea from one thimble to another by a thimblerigger; also fig.; thimble-skein, a skein for an axle made in tubular form; thimble-surface, Ceramics, a surface of raised dots produced by closely pitting the interior of the mould; thimble-weed: see quot.

1901 N. Amer. Rev. Feb. 231 The *thimble belt, used only by the Americans, is still preferred to the cartridge pouches of the others.

1789 R. Haswell Jrnl. 16 Mar. in F. W. Howay Voy. Columbia to Northwest Coast (1941) 60 We frequently met with gooseberrys rousberrys currants blackberries strawberries and *thimble berries. 1847 [see black-cap 5]. 1854 Thoreau Walden xiv. (1886) 262 Strawberries, raspberries, thimble-berries. 1883 Stevenson Silverado Sq. iii, A bower of green and tangled thicket..where thimbleberry played the part of our English hawthorn. 1886 [see black-cap 5]. 1946 T. M. Stanwell-Fletcher Driftwood Valley 219 Here the devil's-club gave way..to a dense growth of alders, azaleas, and thimbleberry.

1715 Lady M. W. Montagu Basset-Table 34 A myrtle foliage round the *thimble-case.

1882 Ogilvie, *Thimble-coupling.{ddd}In mach. a kind of permanent coupling, of which the coupling-box consists of a plain ring of metal, supposed to resemble a tailor's thimble.

1876 H. Gardner Sunflowers, Dream of Noon 48 Then she Raising a slender finger, *thimble-crowned, Beckoned him onwards.

1796 Burney Mem. Metastasio III. 277 A whitloe in the stitching or *thimble finger.

c 1711 Petiver Gazophyl. vi. liv, Borneo *Thimble Grater... The outside is rough like a Grater, and hollow like a Cap or Thimble.

1877 Knight Dict. Mech., *Thimble-joint, a sleeve-joint, with an interior packing to keep the joints of pipes tight during expansion and contraction.

1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 602 The minute honey-combed, *thimble-like appearance of its surface.

1883 Guilfoyle Catal. Plants Melbourne Bot. Gard. 22 Blandfordia nobilis..*Thimble Lily.

c 1711 Petiver Gazophyl. Dec. viii. Tab. 80 Barbadoes *Thimble Limpet.

1654 Nicholas Papers (Camden) II. 116 For other his undertakinges [he] is a *thimble-maker.., a mere cheat that rambles up and doun, not worth on farthing.

1830 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) I. 192 The army of *thimble-men from Doncaster is upon you.

1901 Scotsman 28 Mar. 9/1 Persons are returned..as *thimble-pickers, without mentioning that they are directly engaged in making..earthenware.

1828 Craven Gloss., *Thimble-pie, a fillip with the thimble. 1882 Mozley Remin. II. cviii. 245, I had to sit under the lady's three-legged work table, receiving ‘thimble-pie’, that is a sharp rap with a thimble on the crown of my head.

1881 Rep. Kew Gardens 39/2 W. African rubber..appears as..agglutinated masses of small cubes of which there are specimens in the Kew Museum under the name of *Thimble rubber.

1862 H. Mayhew London Labour Extra vol. 25 ‘*Thimble-screwers’, those who wrench watches from their guards. 1932 Thimble-screwer [see rampsman].

1840 Thackeray Catherine i, The dirty scrap of paper, *thimble-sealed. 1867 *Thimble-shaped [see thimble-eye]. 1905 Daily News 1 Aug. 4 [A bee's] thimble-shaped cell.

1834 Hist. in Ann. Reg. 90/1 About twenty per cent. was to be deducted from the tithe-owner [etc.]. This was *thimble-shift the first.

1834 Stanley in Hansard's Parl. Deb. 4 July XXIV. 1154 How was this deficiency to be made good to the State? Here, then, was one instance of his right hon. friend's *thimble-shifting.

1895 C. Holland Jap. Wife (ed. 11) 121 The little silver pipe with its *thimble-sized bowl.

1874 Knight Dict. Mech. 144/2 Arm..the axle-spindle. When of wood, it is strengthened by metallic straps called skeins, and sometimes by a conical sheath called a *thimble-skein.

1879 H. Drummond in Life vii. (1899) 166 The spurts come up in little domes, some only the size of a *thimble-top.

1860 Bartlett Dict. Amer., *Thimble-weed. (Rudbeckia.)..Like the Thimble-berry, its receptacle resembles a thimble.

  b. More generally applied attrib. or as adj. to various objects considered to resemble a thimble in size or shape, esp. as thimble cup, thimble glass. Also fig.

1843 Ainsworth's Mag. III 470 Having now taken a lump of sugar..and thrown the same into a thimble glass. 1899 H. B. Cushman Hist. Indians 501 The monotonous tinkling and rattling of the thimble bells..could be heard. 1907 G. O. Wheeler Old Eng. Furnit. xv. 390 The feet [in Sheraton's chairs] were of the thimble-toe or thermed variety. 1933 N. Waln House of Exile i. 24 Warm rice-wine, served in thimble cups. 1955 M. Allingham Beckoning Lady xi. 157 The comfortable landlady brought two thimble-glasses, frighteningly overfilled. 1962 Flight International LXXXII. 354/1 The new thimble blower is believed to be the world's smallest pressure blower. 1971 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 24 Nov. 2/1 The thimble-brains who perpetrate the law-breaking know the police are so manacled. 1983 Times 16 Dec. 6/4 The thimble measure should be filled to the top.

  Hence thimble v., intr. to use a thimble, to sew; ˈthimbling vbl. n. and ppl. a., using a thimble in sewing; also = thimblerigging.

1659 H. M. Pair Spectacles Nation 4 Cobling Hewson, Cooper, thimbling Barkstead, Bury, and the rest of their Confederates. 1780 Beckford Italy (1834) I. v. 38 Pretty sempstresses, warbling melodious hymns as they sat needling and thimbling at their windows above. 1856 J. Ballantine Poems, Wee Raggit Laddie xiv, Ilk thimblin' thievin' gamblin' diddler..Chase thee like fire. 1857 Borrow Rom. Rye xliv, If you have not sufficient capital, why do you engage in so deep a trade as thimbling?

  
  
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   Add: [5.] h. A printing head used in electric typewriters and computer printers, in which the type is arranged in a cup- or thimble-like shape.

1979 Byte May 151/1 (Advt.), With more than 14 different optional printing ‘thimbles’,..there is no end to its printing capabilities. 1985 Inmac Catal. Spring/Summer 30/1 You can order top quality printwheels and thimbles from Inmac. 1987 InfoWorld 6 July 38/3 NEC originally became known as the manufacturer of the Spinwriter series, which used a thimble to compete against everybody else's daisywheel printers.

  [9.] thimble printer, a computer printer in which the printing element is a thimble (sense *5 h above).

1982 Byte Jan. 443/2 The Graphic Printing System program for the Apple II prints high-resolution images on Diablo-formatted daisy-wheel printers and *thimble printers. 1987 Computerworld 22 June s11 If you want true letter-quality text, such as that produced by a good typewriter, you will need a daisywheel printer or a thimble printer.

Oxford English Dictionary