thumb

1. 1.

   travel by getting free rides from motorists

   Synonymshitchhikehitch

   Broaderride
2. 2.

   look through a book or other written material

   “He thumbed through the report”

   “She leafed through the volume”

   Synonymsflickflipriffleleafriff

   Broaderperuse
3. 3.

   feel or handle with the fingers

   “finger the binding of the book”

   Synonymsfinger

   Broadertouch

Other forms of thumb

plural

thumbs·

past tense

thumbed·

present participle

thumbing·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about thumb

What does thumb mean?

thumb means "the thick short innermost digit of the forelimb". That is the primary sense; the word has 6 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in thumb?

thumb has 1 syllable: thumb. In IPA it is /ˈθʌm/.

What is another word for thumb?

Close synonyms include pollex, ovolo, quarter round, hitchhike, hitch. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is thumb a common word?

thumb is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.