green thumb
an exceptional aptitude for gardening or for growing plants successfully: Houseplants provide much pleasure for the city dweller with a green thumb.
Origin of green thumb
1Other words from green thumb
- green-thumbed, adjective
- green-thumber, noun
Words Nearby green thumb
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use green thumb in a sentence
We’ve got painters, builders, rock climbers, musicians, board-game aficionados, green thumbs.
My dad has always had a green thumb, but it definitely skipped a generation.
Personal Rise Garden review: A simple solution for bad plant parents | Tony Ware | July 22, 2021 | Popular-ScienceIt could be building raised garden beds outside if you have a green thumb and enjoy watching things grow.
Whether you’re in an office or a porch, keeping a plant alive doesn’t always come down to your green thumb.
Handy lights to help your indoor plants thrive | PopSci Commerce Team | March 11, 2021 | Popular-ScienceMuch of this intelligence should be of the "green thumb" variety, a mixture of common sense and keen observation.
Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Thirty-Eighth Annual Meeting | Northern Nut Growers Association
But unfortunately several of the farm nut tree plantings I have seen show a woeful lack of "green thumb" intelligence.
Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Thirty-Eighth Annual Meeting | Northern Nut Growers AssociationClearly it was one thing to build a machine with a superhuman work potential, but quite another to build one with a green thumb.
The Servant Problem | Robert F. Young
British Dictionary definitions for green thumb
US and Canadian considerable talent or ability to grow plants: Also called (in Britain and certain other countries): green fingers
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for green thumb
A knack for growing plants and keeping them healthy: “All my houseplants are in sorry shape; it's clear I don't have a green thumb.”
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Other Idioms and Phrases with green thumb
A knack for making plants grow well, as in Just look at Louise's plants—she really has a green thumb. This term presumably alludes to the stained fingers of an avid gardener. [First half of 1900s]
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
Browse