twiddle one's thumbs

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Verb

twiddle one's thumbs (third-person singular simple present twiddles one's thumbs, present participle twiddling one's thumbs, simple past and past participle twiddled one's thumbs)

1. to circle one's thumbs around one another, usually with the fingers interlaced, usually done idly while waiting or bored
2. (idiomatic) To wait or dawdle; to accomplish nothing useful or lack a useful occupation.

   Synonym: sit on one's hands

   He twiddled his thumbs for almost a week while he waited for somebody to set up his computer.

Synonyms

• (circle one's thumbs):
• (wait): bide one's time, hold one's horses; See also Thesaurus:wait
• (dawdle): fool around, lallygag, loaf about; See also Thesaurus:loiter

Translations

to circle one's thumbs around one another

• Czech: točit palci
• Danish: trille tommelfingre
• Dutch: duimendraaien (nl)
• French: se tourner les pouces (fr)
• German: Däumchen drehen (de)
• Hungarian: malmozik az ujjaival, malmozik (hu)
• Italian: girarsi i pollici
• Swedish: rulla tummarna (sv)

to wait or dawdle

• Azerbaijani: lülə qurutmaq (vulgar)
• Czech: lelkovat (cs)
• Danish: trille tommelfingre
• Dutch: duimendraaien (nl)
• Finnish: pyöritellä peukaloitansa
• French: se tourner les pouces (fr)
• German: Däumchen drehen (de)
• Hungarian: malmozik (hu)
• Italian: girarsi i pollici
• Polish: siedzieć z założonymi rękami (pl) impf, wlec się impf
• Romanian: freca menta, tăia frunză la câini
• Russian: би́ть баклу́ши (ru) (bítʹ baklúši), сиде́ь сложа́ ру́ки impf (sidéʹ složá rúki)
• Swedish: rulla tummarna (sv)
• Ukrainian: бити байдики (uk) (byty bajdyky)