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thumb

 

  7  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Thumb  \Thumb\,  v.  t.  [imp.  &  p.  p.  {Thumbed};  p.  pr  &  vb  n. 
  {Thumbing}.] 
  1.  To  handle  awkwardly.  --Johnson. 
 
  2.  To  play  with  the  thumbs,  or  with  the  thumbs  and  fingers; 
  as  to  thumb  over  a  tune. 
 
  3.  To  soil  or  wear  with  the  thumb  or  the  fingers;  to  soil,  or 
  wear  out  by  frequent  handling;  also  to  cover  with  the 
  thumb;  as  to  thumb  the  touch-hole  of  a  cannon. 
 
  He  gravely  informed  the  enemy  that  all  his  cards  had 
  been  thumbed  to  pieces,  and  begged  them  to  let  him 
  have  a  few  more  packs.  --Macaulay. 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Thumb  \Thumb\,  n.  [OE.  thombe,  thoumbe  [thorn]ume,  AS 
  [thorn][=u]ma;  akin  to  OFries  th[=u]ma,  D.  duim,  G.  daumen 
  OHG.  d[=u]mo,  Icel.  [thorn]umall,  Dan.  tommelfinger  Sw 
  tumme,  and  perhaps  to  L.  tumere  to  swell.  [root]56.  Cf 
  {Thimble},  {Tumid}.] 
  The  short,  thick  first  digit  of  the  human  hand,  differing 
  from  the  other  fingers  in  having  but  two  phalanges;  the 
  pollex.  See  {Pollex}. 
 
  Upon  his  thumb  he  had  of  gold  a  ring.  --Chaucer. 
 
  {Thumb  band},  a  twist  of  anything  as  thick  as  the  thumb. 
  --Mortimer. 
 
  {Thumb  blue},  indigo  in  the  form  of  small  balls  or  lumps, 
  used  by  washerwomen  to  blue  linen,  and  the  like 
 
  {Thumb  latch},  a  door  latch  having  a  lever  formed  to  be 
  pressed  by  the  thumb. 
 
  {Thumb  mark}. 
  a  The  mark  left  by  the  impression  of  a  thumb,  as  on  the 
  leaves  of  a  book.  --Longfellow. 
  b  The  dark  spot  over  each  foot  in  finely  bred  black  and  tan 
  terriers. 
 
  {Thumb  nut},  a  nut  for  a  screw,  having  wings  to  grasp  between 
  the  thumb  and  fingers  in  turning  it  also  a  nut  with  a 
  knurled  rim  for  the  same  perpose. 
 
  {Thumb  ring},  a  ring  worn  on  the  thumb.  --Shak. 
 
  {Thumb  stall}. 
  a  A  kind  of  thimble  or  ferrule  of  iron,  or  leather,  for 
  protecting  the  thumb  in  making  sails,  and  in  other  work 
  b  (Mil.)  A  buckskin  cushion  worn  on  the  thumb,  and  used  to 
  close  the  vent  of  a  cannon  while  it  is  sponged,  or 
  loaded. 
 
  {Under  one's  thumb},  completely  under  one's  power  or 
  influence;  in  a  condition  of  subservience.  [Colloq.] 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Thumb  \Thumb\,  v.  i. 
  To  play  with  the  thumb  or  thumbs;  to  play  clumsily;  to  thrum. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  thumb 
  n  :  the  thick  short  innermost  digit  of  the  forelimb  [syn:  {pollex}] 
  v  1:  travel  by  getting  free  rides  from  motorists  [syn:  {hitchhike}, 
  {hitch}] 
  2:  look  through  a  book  or  other  written  material;  "He  thumbed 
  through  the  report";  "She  leafed  through  the  volume"  [syn: 
  {flick},  {flip},  {riffle},  {leaf},  {riff}] 
  3:  feel  or  handle  with  the  fingers;  "finger  the  binding  of  the 
  book"  [syn:  {finger}] 
 
  From  Jargon  File  (4.2.3,  23  NOV  2000)  [jargon]: 
 
  thumb  n.  The  slider  on  a  window-system  scrollbar  So  called 
  because  moving  it  allows  you  to  browse  through  the  contents  of  a  text 
  window  in  a  way  analogous  to  thumbing  through  a  book. 
 
 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  Thumb 
 
    An  extension  to  the  {Advanced  RISC  Machine} 
  architecture,  announced  on  06  March  1995  by  {Advanced  RISC 
  Machines}  Ltd.  By  identifying  the  critical  subset  of  the  ARM 
  {instruction  set}  and  encoding  it  into  16  bits,  ARM  has 
  succeeded  in  reducing  typical  program  size  by  30-40%  from 
  ARM's  already  excellent  code  density.  Since  this  Thumb 
  instruction  set  uses  less  memory  for  program  storage,  cost  is 
  further  reduced. 
 
  All  Thumb-aware  {processor  core}s  combine  the  capability  to 
  execute  both  the  32-bit  ARM  and  the  16-bit  Thumb  instruction 
  sets.  Careful  design  of  the  Thumb  instructions  allow  them  to 
  be  decompressed  into  full  ARM  instructions  transparently 
  during  normal  instruction  decoding  without  any  performance 
  penalty.  This  differs  from  other  32-bit  processors,  like  the 
  {Intel  486SX},  with  a  16-bit  data  bus,  which  require  two 
  16-bit  memory  accesses  to  execute  every  32-bit  instruction  and 
  so  halve  performance. 
 
  The  patented  Thumb  decompressor  has  been  carefully  designed 
  with  only  a  small  amount  of  circuitry  additional  to  the 
  existing  instruction  decoder,  so  chip  size  and  thus  cost  do 
  not  significantly  increase.  Designers  can  easily  interleave 
  fast  ARM  instructions  (for  performance  critical  parts  of  a 
  program)  with  compact  Thumb  code  to  save  memory. 
 
  (1995-03-14) 
 
 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  thumb 
 
    The  slider  or  bubble"  on  a  window  system 
  {scrollbar}.  So  called  because  moving  it  allows  you  to  browse 
  through  the  contents  of  a  text  window  in  a  way  analogous  to 
  thumbing  through  a  book. 
 
  [{Jargon  File}] 
 
  (1995-03-14)




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