twiddle one's thumbs, to
twiddle one's thumbs
Fig. to pass the time by twirling one's thumbs. What am I supposed to do while waiting for you? Sit here and twiddle my thumbs? Don't sit around twiddling your thumbs. Get busy!
See also: thumb, twiddle
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
twiddle one's thumbs
Be bored or idle, as in There I sat for three hours, twiddling my thumbs, while he made call after call. This expression alludes to the habit of idly turning one's thumbs about one another during a period of inactivity. [Mid-1800s]
See also: thumb, twiddle
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
twiddle (one's) thumbs
To do little or nothing; be idle.
See also: thumb, twiddle
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
twiddle one's thumbs, to
To be bored; to be idle. The habit of idly turning one’s thumbs about each other during a period of enforced inactivity gave rise to this cliché, which began life in the mid-nineteenth century. “You’d have all the world do nothing . . . but twiddle its thumbs,” wrote Douglas Jerrold (Mrs. Caudle’s Curtain Lectures, 1846).
See also: twiddle
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- sit a spell
- sit down
- sit down to (do something)
- sat
- come in and sit a spell
- set a spell
- come in and sit down
- pull up a chair
- have a seat
- do sit down