1400–50; late Middle English milneres thume; the fish is so called from its thumblike head
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
First there came Two gold fish, A minnow and a miller's thumb, Then a pair of loving trout, Then the twisted eels come.
From Country Sentiment by Graves, Robert
Once when swimming he was bitten on the knee by a horrible fish called on the shores of the Atlantic the miller’s thumb.
From Kenneth McAlpine A Tale of Mountain, Moorland and Sea by Stables, Gordon
The miller’s thumb is about the size of a gudgeon, to which it is allied, but has a head broader than its body, whence it gets its other name of “bull-head.”
From Records of Woodhall Spa and Neighbourhood Historical, Anecdotal, Physiographical, and Archaeological, with Other Matter by Walter, James Conway
We meet with the sturgeon, the whiting, the roach, the miller's thumb, the thomback, the codling, the perch, the gudgeon, the turbot, the pike, the tench, and the haddock.
From Old Cookery Books and Ancient Cuisine by Hazlitt, William Carew
The small fish known as the miller's thumb.
From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
