Noun: thumbling
| Singular | thumbling |
| Plural | thumblings |
Sample Sentences
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There is a long list of such spirits, including dwarfs, elves, gnomes, brownies, pixies, leprechauns, thumblings (like Tom Thumb), and dactyli (which means fingers). As with the Menehune, the thumblings and the dactyl-fingers are masculine figures, and so are the ancient gnomes. [1989, Rita Knipe, The Water of Life:]
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Passing through the kitchen to the scullery, to which place she ordered us, I saw Deborah was very busy frying thumblings — small croquettes about the size of a big man's thumb — […] [1946, Thomas Fleming Day, The Rudder - Volume 62:]
Nouns inflected like thumbling
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
From thumb + -ling. Compare Dutch duimeling, Middle Low German dûmelinc, dûmelink, German Däumling. Compare also Icelandic þumlungur (“thumb; inch”) (measurement). See: German Nouns '
Däumling', Icelandic Nouns '
þumlungur'.