tom thumb

1. 1.

   an imaginary hero of English folklore who was no taller than his father's thumb

   Broaderimaginary being
2. 2.

   a very small person

   Broadersmall person

Questions about tom thumb

What does tom thumb mean?

tom thumb means "an imaginary hero of English folklore who was no taller than his father's thumb". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

Is tom thumb a common word?

tom thumb is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.