Chapter Three-tailed Bashaw to Thunder of T by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

thumb-nail as a standard. Countrymen always measure by their thumb.
   Tom Thumb. (See Tom.)
   Under one's thumb. Under the influence or power of the person named.

Thumb-nail Legacies Legacies so small that they could be written on one's thumb-nail.

“`Tis said, some men may make their wills
On their thumb-nails, for aught they can bestow.”
Peter Pindar: Lord B. and his Motions.

Thumbikins or Thumbscrew. An instrument of torture largely used by the Inquisition. The torture was compressing the thumb between two bars of iron, made to approach each other by means of a screw. Principal Carstairs was the last person put to this torture in Britain; he suffered for half an hour at Holyrood, by order of the Scotch Privy Council, to wring from him a confession of the secrets of the Argyll and Monmouth parties.

Thunder The giant who fell into the river and was killed, because Jack cut the ropes that suspended the draw-bridge, and when the giant ventured to cross it the bridge fell in. (Jack the Giant Killer.)

Thunder (Sons of) [Boanerges]. James and John, the sons of Zebedee (Mark iii. 17). So called because they asked to be allowed to consume with lightning those who rejected the mission of Christ. (Luke ix. 54; Mark iii. 17.)