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twiddle one's thumbs

twid·dle
T t

Transcription

    • US Pronunciation
    • US IPA
    • UK Pronunciation
    • UK IPA
    • [twid-l]
    • /ˈtwɪd l wʌnz θʌm/
    • /ˈtwɪd.l̩ wʌnz θʌm/
    • US Pronunciation
    • US IPA
    • [twid-l]
    • /ˈtwɪd l wʌnz θʌm/

Definitions of twiddle one's thumbs words

  • verb with object twiddle one's thumbs to turn about or play with lightly or idly, especially with the fingers; twirl. 1
  • verb without object twiddle one's thumbs to play or trifle idly with something; fiddle. 1
  • verb without object twiddle one's thumbs to turn about lightly; twirl. 1
  • noun twiddle one's thumbs the act of twiddling; turn; twirl. 1
  • idioms twiddle one's thumbs twiddle one's thumbs, to do nothing; be idle: Business was slack, and the salespeople were twiddling their thumbs. 1
  • noun twiddle one's thumbs to twirl one's thumbs idly around each other 0
See all 7 definitions of twiddle one's thumbs

Information block about the term

Origin of twiddle one's thumbs

First appearance:

before 1530
One of the 29% oldest English words
1530-40; perhaps blend of twitch and fiddle

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for Twiddle one's thumbs

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation
Full grammatical hierarchy of Twiddle one's thumbs

twiddle one's thumbs popularity

A pretty common term. Usually people know it’s meaning, but prefer to use a more spread out synonym. About 66% of English native speakers know the meaning and use word.
This word is included in each student's vocabulary. Most likely there is at least one movie with this word in the title.

See also

Matching words

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