thumb down

English

Noun

thumb down (plural thumbs down)

  1. Rare form of thumbs down.
    • 1983 June 29, Martin Tolchin, “Time to Vote: The Sound and the Fury”, in The New York Times‎[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 24 May 2015:
      Exploiting a member's indecision are lobbyists who station themselves outside the House and Senate chambers and signal members with a thumb up or a thumb down.
    • 1996 June 2, Peter Marks, quoting Vincent Canby, “On Broadway and Off, a Seesaw Season”, in The New York Times‎[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 May 2015:
      The fact is that the reader is now just interested in a thumb up or thumb down from the critic. And that's no way to criticize theater.
    • 2012 May 9, Lev Grossman, “Confessions of (Another) Book Reviewer”, in Time‎[3], New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 3 February 2026:
      They tell the story, the meta-story, of what happened when they opened the book and began to read the story. It’s not as sexy as a thumb up or a thumb down, but then again we’re suffering from a surfeit of thumbs.
    • 2018 June 27, Carly Stern, “Having the last laugh? Stefano Gabbana trolls Instagram account that accused him of ripping off another designer by selling a $500 T-shirt that features his demand for an apology”, in Daily Mail‎[4], London: DMG Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2 February 2026:
      The account shared pictures of the 44-year-old model wearing a $4,007 playsuit and asked whether it deserved a thumb up or a thumb down.
    • 2018 October 25, Max Jaeger, “Americans agree that America is divided”, in New York Post‎[5], New York, N.Y.: News Corp, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 October 2018:
      Overall, 59 percent give Trump a thumb down, while 40 percent approve of his job performance.
    • 2023 February 8, Andrew Feinberg, “Biden stares down Republican hecklers in feisty State of the Union tackling economy, police reform and China”, in The Independent‎[6], London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 8 February 2023:
      Marjorie Taylor Greene gives a thumb down as US President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address

Verb

thumb down (third-person singular simple present thumbs down, present participle thumbing down, simple past and past participle thumbed down)

  1. To get (a passing vehicle) to stop and give one a ride, signalling to the driver by holding out one's thumb (as a hitchhiker).
    I was stranded in the middle of nowhere, but luckily I managed to thumb down a passing car.
  2. To disapprove or reject.

See also

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.