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Glite Dictionary
🧸 A finger puppet 🗝️ A torture tool
thumbkin

thumbkin

9.9
A device that crushes thumbs to punish or make people confess
  • noun
  • NSFW
translation icon : torturador de pulgares
  • Historians explained how the thumbkin was used to force confessions during interrogations.

Examples

  • Visitors were shocked to see a real thumbkin on display at the torture museum.

  • The thumbkin was a cruel device used in medieval times.

  • The castle's dungeon contained a thumbkin among other grim relics of the past.

  • He was terrified of the thumbkin after hearing its history.

  • Historians explained how the thumbkin was used to force confessions during interrogations.

  • Visitors were shocked to see a real thumbkin on display at the torture museum.

  • He was terrified of the thumbkin after hearing its history.

Synonyms

thumbscrew
vsthumbkin
  • NSFW
1 9.9

A device used to hurt people by crushing the thumb with a tightened screw

is known as a historical instrument used for punishment or interrogation

Surface Forms

thumbkin singular
thumbkins plural

Morphology

thumbkin = thumb (semi-transparent) = thumb + kin

Morphologically it is 'thumb' + '-kin', but the specific historical meaning 'instrument of torture' is a specialized, non-obvious sense not predictable from the base.

Etymology

Thumbkin is also formed from thumb plus -kin, and a helpful way to remember the older meaning is to think of it as a 'small thing for the thumb', which explains why the name was used for a cruel tool that crushed or pressed thumbs.