to thumb a ride
1
8.2
- phrasal verb
- /θʌm ə raɪd/
- Archaic
:
hacer autostop
- Standing by the roadside, she hoped to thumb a ride to the next town.
Examples
-
I thumbed a ride.
Fiction book (1990) -
Wherever we are, let's land and thumb a ride.
-
I have been trying to thumb a ride down to "Titanic" for probably 10 years now.
-
The biker is still there, standing in the road trying to thumb a ride.
Fiction book (1992) -
A half-hour earlier, I'd thumbed a ride.
-
Listen Lieutenant, if you don't need me for a while, I'll thumb a ride to Tokyo... ...and silence that dame, but good!
-
Thumb a ride.
Fiction book (1995) -
I decided to thumb a ride to the beach after my friends canceled on me.
-
He used to thumb a ride to school every day during his summer break.
Synonyms
49
3.9
To travel by getting rides from passing drivers
48
3.9
Travel by getting free rides from passing cars
14
3.2
To travel in someone else's car as a passenger
5
6.2
To travel by getting free rides from passing cars while standing at the road with your arm raised
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components 'ride' (a trip) and the idea of using a 'thumb' to signal can lead a learner to infer 'obtain a ride by signaling with your thumb', so the meaning is partly recoverable from the parts. However, the verbal sense of 'thumb' as a hitchhiking gesture and the cultural/pragmatic knowledge required are not guaranteed for a B1 learner, making the expression not fully predictable without exposure.
Etymology
Thumb a ride comes from the image of a person standing by the road and sticking out their thumb to signal a passing driver for a ride. Because that thumb gesture clearly asks for a lift, the phrase now means 'to ask for a free ride' from a stranger.