thumbkin

[ thuhm-kin ]

noun

1. thumbscrew ( def 2 ).

Word History and Origins

Origin of thumbkin¹

First recorded in 1675–85; thumb + -kin

Example Sentences

And so on, substituting in succession middleone, longman, or middleman, ringman, and littleman, and each verse terminating with "thumbkin he can dance alone."

From Project Gutenberg

Dance, foreman, dance, Dance foreman, dance; Dance, ye merry men all around: But thumbkin he can dance alone; But thumbkin he can dance alone.

From Project Gutenberg

It is rather curious that some of these names should have survived the wrecks of time, and be still preserved in a nursery-rhyme; yet such is the fact; for one thus commences, the fingers being kept in corresponding movements: Dance, thumbkin, dance, Dance, thumbkin, dance; Dance, ye merry men all around: But thumbkin he can dance alone; But thumbkin he can dance alone.

From Project Gutenberg

Thumbkin, of fairy celebrity, used to mark his way by flinging crumbs of bread and scattering stones as he went along; and in like manner authors trace the course of their life's peregrinations by the pamphlets and articles they cast down as they go.

From Project Gutenberg

DANCE, Thumbkin, dance; Dance, ye merrymen, every one; For Thumbkin, he can dance alone, Thumbkin, he can dance alone; Dance, Foreman, dance, Dance, ye merrymen, every one; But, Foreman, he can dance alone, Foreman, he can dance alone.

From Project Gutenberg