thumbkin

Also thumb·i·kin

[thuhm-kin]

noun

1. thumbscrew.

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."

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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