thumb king (b silent)

pl. [Eng. thumb, s.; dim in. suff. -kin.] A thumbscrew; an instrument of torture for compre ing the thumbs, much used by the Inquisition in Spain, and occasionally in Britain, when it was desired to obtain a confe ion or recantation from any person by causing him exquisite pain without endangering his life. Thumbkins were last used in Britain in 1684, on Prof. Car stairs. Called also thumbiekins and thumbikins. "I'll set those to look after him shall keep him as fast as if his legs were in the boots, or his fingers in the thumbikins." -Scott: Old Mortality , ch. ix. thumb-le ( b silent), a. [Eng. thumb, s.; -le .] Having no thumb; hence, awkward, clumsy, unskillful. "The servants thumble e." Herrick: Hesperides , p. 333. IMG:content-1081.png:[blocks in formation] the bight of a rope. thumb-flint, s. Anthrop.: A popular name for a short form of scrapers, the longer varieties of which are sometimes known as "finger-flints." Evans ( Ancient Stone Implements , p. 262), thinks that these names "though colloquially convenient, are not suffi. ciently definite to be worthy of being retained."