▪ I. ˈthumb-screw, ˈthumbscrew, n.
[f. thumb n. + screw n.; cf. Ger. daumschraube.]
1. A screw with a flattened or winged head, adapted for being turned with the thumb and fingers; a butterfly screw; also a small clamp adjusted by such a screw.
| 1794 Felton Carriages (1801) Gloss., Thumb Nut or Screw. 1805 Dickson Pract. Agric. I. Pl. xxiv, On the side of the tub is a thumb screw fixed to the lever underneath, which regulates the stones. 1888 Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin. s.v. Screw Clamp, Small screw clamps are sometimes called thumb screws. 1908 Times 22 Apr. 5/5 A thumb-screw securing the sashes had been removed. |
2. An instrument of torture by which one or both thumbs were compressed; cf. thumbikins; also called ‘the screws’ (screw n.1 1 e).
| [a 1715 Burnet Own Time xvi, Little screws of steel were made use of, that screwed the thumbs [etc.: see screw n.1 1 e].] 1817 Scott Old Mort. xxxvi, An oaken table..on which lay thumb-screws, and an iron case, called the Scottish boot. 1832 G. Downes Lett. Cont. Countries I. 200 Such intellects as devised the rack and the thumb-screw. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xiii. III. 290 The using of racks and thumbscrews for the purpose of forcing prisoners to accuse themselves. 1859 Jephson Brittany iii. 34 A grim functionary, whose countenance was suggestive of dungeons and thumb⁓screws. |
▪ II. ˈthumb-screw, ˈthumbscrew, v.
[f. thumb n. + screw v., or f. prec.; evidenced earlier than the n.]
trans. To torture by screwing the thumbs; to torture with or as with thumb-screws. Hence ˈthumb-screwing vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1771 E. Long in Hone Every-day Bk. (1827) II. 199 He must..be thumb-screwed. 1792 Gentl. Mag. LXII. i. 260/2 Think what tortures we endur'd,..Whipp'd, chain'd, thumb⁓screw'd. 1835 Tait's Mag. II. 377 We tax, distrain, screw, thumb-screw, incarcerate. 1882 Standard 9 Sept. 5/5 His Highness admits that a case of thumb-screwing has come to his knowledge. 1892 Pall Mall G. 22 Dec. 2/2 We have little sympathy with the thriftless borrowers, but less with the thumbscrewing Shylock. |