doubting Thomas

noun

1. a person who refuses to believe without proof; skeptic: in reference to the apostle Thomas.

doubting Thomas

noun

1. a person who insists on proof before he will believe anything; sceptic

Word History and Origins

Origin of doubting Thomas¹

after Thomas (the apostle), who did not believe that Jesus had been resurrected until he had proof

Idioms and Phrases

One who is habitually doubtful. For example, He was a doubting Thomas about the coming merger, not believing it would ever happen . The term alludes to the disciple Thomas, who doubted Jesus's resurrection until he had first-hand evidence of it (John 20:24–29).

Example Sentences

It includes that juicy sample chapter, but it’s set up by a series of ginned-up emails between me and Steve: me playing the doubting Thomas, and him convincing me, over time, that this invention was real and would indeed change the world.

From Slate

On “Doubting Thomas,” from Nickel Creek’s 2004 album, “Why Should the Fire Die?,” he reckons with religion through mortality.

From New York Times

Even Ben Long sits, to the far right, in the guise of Doubting Thomas.

From Washington Post

His contemporaries may have been interested in the biblical lesson of the doubting Thomas, but we are attracted to Thomas’s uncertainty, which we read, in some way, as the painter’s own.

From New York Times

She remembers when the site now occupied by Doubting Thomas was just a dirty trash-strewn eyesore.

From Los Angeles Times