1614. Overbury, Characters. They call the thumb under the girdle gravity, and because they can hardly smell at all, their posy's are under their girdles.
1639. Optick Glasse of Humours. Of all men wee count a melancholicke man the very sponge of all sad humours, the aqua-fortis of merry company, a thumbe under the girdle, the contemplative slumberer, that sleepes waking, etc.
1648. Herrick, Hesperides, 333. When to a house I come and see The genius wastefull more than free; The servants thumblesse, yet to eat With lawlesse tooth the floure of wheat.
1753. Richardson, Grandison, v. 56. She remembers her delinquency, so she is obliged to be silent: I have her under my thumb.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas [Routledge], 277. The tenants were all under my thumb. Ibid., 378. He is an old hunks who wants to keep me under his thumb.
1859. Kingsley, Geof. Hamlyn, ix. He is under the thumb of that doctor.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, xxi. We never learnt anything in the navy when I was a youngster, except a little rule-of-thumb mathematics.
Thumber, subs. (common).—(1)
A sandwich; and (2) a slice of
bread and meat carved and eaten
between finger and thumb.
Thumbing, subs. (provincial).—A
Nottingham phrase, used to describe
that species of intimidation
practised by masters on their
servants: when the latter are
compelled to vote as their employers
please, under pain of
losing their situations (Halliwell).
Thumb-of-love, subs. phr.
(venery).—The penis: cf.
Whitman (Children of Adam)
and Shakspeare (potato-finger,
q.v.).
Thump, subs. (old: now recognised).—A
heavy blow with
club, fist, or anything that resounds:
also as verb (Grose).
[Century. Not found in Middle
English; apparently a variant of
dump.] Hence thumper. Also
'This is better than a thump on
the back with a stone' (Grose:
said on giving a drink of good
liquor on a cold morning);
'Thatch, thistle, thunder, and
thump' (Grose: 'words to the
Irish, like the Shibboleth of the
Hebrews').
1596. Spenser, Fairy Queen, vi. ii. 10. He with his speare . . . Would thumpe her forward and inforce to goe.
1607. Dekker, Northward Ho, iv. 1. As though my heart-strings had been cracked I wept and sighed, and thumped and thumped, and raved and randed and railed.
c.1618. Fletcher, Mad Lover, v. O let me ring the fore bell, and here are thumpers.
1628. Ford, Lover's Melancholy, i. 1. When blustering Boreas . . . Thumps a thunder-bounce.
d.1771. Gray, Letters, 1. 71. With these masqueraders that vast church is filled, who are seen thumping their breasts, and kissing the pavement with extreme devotion.
Verb. (obscene).—To possess a woman.
1604. Shakspeare, Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 195. Delicate burthens of dildos and fadings, 'jump her and thump her.'
Thumper (Thumping, etc.), subs.
(common).—1. Anything impressive:
cf. Whopper; thumping
= unusually large, heavy, etc.
(Grose).
c.1709. Ward, Terræfilius, ii. 5. Here comes a Thumping Brother of . . . the Law.
1710-13. Swift, Journ. to Stella [Oliphant, New English, ii. 150. The word thumper stands for mendacium].
