"all thumbs" meaning in English

See all thumbs in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Etymology: From the proverb "when he should get aught, each finger is a thumb", from John Heywood's Collection of 1546. Head templates: {{en-adj|-}} all thumbs (not comparable)
  1. (idiomatic) Clumsy; awkward; not dextrous. Wikipedia link: John Heywood Tags: idiomatic, not-comparable Synonyms: all fingers and thumbs Related terms: mostly thumbs Translations (clumsy (idiom)): 雞手鴨腳 /鸡手鸭脚 (gai¹ sau² aap³ goek³) (Chinese Cantonese), 笨手笨腳 /笨手笨脚 (bènshǒu-bènjiǎo) (english: stupid hands, stupid feet) (Chinese Mandarin), peukalo keskellä kämmentä (Finnish), avoir deux mains gauches (French), zwei linke Hände haben (German), 不器用な (bukiyō na) (alt: ぶきような) (Japanese), ぶざまな (buzama na) (Japanese), ha ti tommeltotter (Norwegian), mieć dziurawe ręce (Polish), ter dois pés esquerdos (Portuguese), ha tummen mitt i handen (Swedish), beceriksiz (Turkish), sakar (Turkish)
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        "Clumsy; awkward; not dextrous."
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        "(idiomatic) Clumsy; awkward; not dextrous."
      ],
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        {
          "word": "mostly thumbs"
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        {
          "word": "all fingers and thumbs"
        }
      ],
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        "idiomatic",
        "not-comparable"
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      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "yue",
          "lang": "Chinese Cantonese",
          "lang_code": "yue",
          "roman": "gai¹ sau² aap³ goek³",
          "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
          "word": "雞手鴨腳 /鸡手鸭脚"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "english": "stupid hands, stupid feet",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "lang_code": "cmn",
          "roman": "bènshǒu-bènjiǎo",
          "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
          "translation": "stupid hands, stupid feet",
          "word": "笨手笨腳 /笨手笨脚"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "lang_code": "fi",
          "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
          "word": "peukalo keskellä kämmentä"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "lang_code": "fr",
          "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
          "word": "avoir deux mains gauches"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "lang_code": "de",
          "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
          "word": "zwei linke Hände haben"
        },
        {
          "alt": "ぶきような",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "lang_code": "ja",
          "roman": "bukiyō na",
          "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
          "word": "不器用な"
        },
        {
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "lang_code": "ja",
          "roman": "buzama na",
          "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
          "word": "ぶざまな"
        },
        {
          "code": "no",
          "lang": "Norwegian",
          "lang_code": "no",
          "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
          "word": "ha ti tommeltotter"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "lang_code": "pl",
          "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
          "word": "mieć dziurawe ręce"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "lang_code": "pt",
          "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
          "word": "ter dois pés esquerdos"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "lang_code": "ru",
          "note": "ру́ки как крю́ки́ (rúki kak krjúkí, literally “hands like hooks”)",
          "sense": "clumsy (idiom)"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "lang_code": "ru",
          "note": "ру́ки не из того́ ме́ста расту́т (rúki ne iz tovó mésta rastút, literally “hands grow from the wrong spot”)",
          "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
          "tags": [
            "euphemistic"
          ]
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "lang_code": "ru",
          "note": "ру́ки из жо́пы расту́т (rúki iz žópy rastút, literally “hands grow from the arse, vulgar”)",
          "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
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          ]
        },
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          "lang": "Russian",
          "lang_code": "ru",
          "note": "рукожо́п (rukožóp, literally “arse-handed”)",
          "sense": "clumsy (idiom)"
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          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "lang_code": "sv",
          "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
          "word": "ha tummen mitt i handen"
        },
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          "code": "tr",
          "lang": "Turkish",
          "lang_code": "tr",
          "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
          "word": "beceriksiz"
        },
        {
          "code": "tr",
          "lang": "Turkish",
          "lang_code": "tr",
          "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
          "word": "sakar"
        }
      ],
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        "John Heywood"
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  "word": "all thumbs"
}
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      "word": "all fingers and thumbs"
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      "code": "yue",
      "lang": "Chinese Cantonese",
      "lang_code": "yue",
      "roman": "gai¹ sau² aap³ goek³",
      "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
      "word": "雞手鴨腳 /鸡手鸭脚"
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      "code": "cmn",
      "english": "stupid hands, stupid feet",
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      "lang_code": "cmn",
      "roman": "bènshǒu-bènjiǎo",
      "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
      "translation": "stupid hands, stupid feet",
      "word": "笨手笨腳 /笨手笨脚"
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      "lang_code": "fi",
      "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
      "word": "peukalo keskellä kämmentä"
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      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "lang_code": "fr",
      "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
      "word": "avoir deux mains gauches"
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      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
      "word": "zwei linke Hände haben"
    },
    {
      "alt": "ぶきような",
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "lang_code": "ja",
      "roman": "bukiyō na",
      "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
      "word": "不器用な"
    },
    {
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "lang_code": "ja",
      "roman": "buzama na",
      "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
      "word": "ぶざまな"
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      "code": "no",
      "lang": "Norwegian",
      "lang_code": "no",
      "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
      "word": "ha ti tommeltotter"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "lang_code": "pl",
      "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
      "word": "mieć dziurawe ręce"
    },
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      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "lang_code": "pt",
      "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
      "word": "ter dois pés esquerdos"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "lang_code": "ru",
      "note": "ру́ки как крю́ки́ (rúki kak krjúkí, literally “hands like hooks”)",
      "sense": "clumsy (idiom)"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "lang_code": "ru",
      "note": "ру́ки не из того́ ме́ста расту́т (rúki ne iz tovó mésta rastút, literally “hands grow from the wrong spot”)",
      "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
      "tags": [
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      "lang": "Russian",
      "lang_code": "ru",
      "note": "ру́ки из жо́пы расту́т (rúki iz žópy rastút, literally “hands grow from the arse, vulgar”)",
      "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
      "tags": [
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      "lang": "Russian",
      "lang_code": "ru",
      "note": "рукожо́п (rukožóp, literally “arse-handed”)",
      "sense": "clumsy (idiom)"
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      "lang": "Swedish",
      "lang_code": "sv",
      "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
      "word": "ha tummen mitt i handen"
    },
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      "code": "tr",
      "lang": "Turkish",
      "lang_code": "tr",
      "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
      "word": "beceriksiz"
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      "lang_code": "tr",
      "sense": "clumsy (idiom)",
      "word": "sakar"
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  "word": "all thumbs"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-08-28 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-08-05 using wiktextract (872fc7b and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.