thumbikins, thumbkins, n. pl. Sc.
(ˈθʌmɪkɪnz, ˈθʌmkɪnz)
Also 7 thumbe-, 7–8 thummi-, 7–9 thumkins, 8–9 thumbikens.
[f. thumb + -i)kin dim. suffix: cf. cutikin.]
= thumb-screw 2.
| 1684 Reg. Privy Council Scotl. 23 July, Whereas..ther is now a new inventione and Ingyne called the thumbekins..[the Lords] ordaine that when any persone shall be (by ther order) put to torture that the saids thumbekins or bootes or both be applyed to them. 1684 Fountainhall Hist. Notices 7 Aug. (Bann. Cl.) 548 Spence..is again tortured, and his thumbs crushed with pilliwincks or thumbikins: It's a new invention..discovered by Generalls Dalzeell and Drummond, they having seene them used in Musco[vy]. 1690 in M. Napier Visct. Dundee (1860) II. 119 Nevil Pain..put to the torture of the thumbkins, and of the boot upon one leg before the thumbkins were taken off. 1715 Carstairs Let. in Wodrow Hist. Ch. Scot. iii. viii. (1722) II. 389 The King's Smith was called in [5 Sept. 1684], to bring in a new Instrument to torture by the Thumbkins, that had never been used before... And under this Torture I continued near an Hour and a Half. 1793 Statist. Acc. Scot. V. 583 Greenock, [He] has in his possession the identical thumbikins, with which the Principal [Carstairs] was severely tortured. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. x, Dread of bloody rope..pain of boots and thumkins. |