1
thumb one's nose (at)
2 of 2phrase
as in hate
to show contempt for
You shouldn't thumb your nose at janitorial staff; they spend all day cleaning up after you.
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
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Recent Examples of thumb
Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 10 Apr. 2025
While nearly every country has announced retaliatory tariffs, nations, businesses and their citizens are increasingly willing to thumb their noses in ways that go beyond extra costs slapped on at ports, touching all levels of commerce.
—Jackie Snow, Quartz, 7 Apr. 2025
Some guards thumbed their noses at the FAA safety rules that flight attendants were supposed to enforce while airborne, multiple flight attendants recalled.
—Mckenzie Funk, ProPublica, 1 Apr. 2025
What’s worse is, some of the guilty ones thumb their noses at the state and refuse to pay fines, forcing the state to go to court.
—Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 26 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for thumb
Verb
Navratilova on Thursday posed a question to Democrats as some states have continued to thumb their nose at President Donald Trump’s executive order to keep males out of girls’ and women’s sports.
—Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 10 Apr. 2025
While nearly every country has announced retaliatory tariffs, nations, businesses and their citizens are increasingly willing to thumb their noses in ways that go beyond extra costs slapped on at ports, touching all levels of commerce.
—Jackie Snow, Quartz, 7 Apr. 2025
Some guards thumbed their noses at the FAA safety rules that flight attendants were supposed to enforce while airborne, multiple flight attendants recalled.
—Mckenzie Funk, ProPublica, 1 Apr. 2025
What’s worse is, some of the guilty ones thumb their noses at the state and refuse to pay fines, forcing the state to go to court.
—Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 26 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for thumb
Recent Examples of Synonyms for thumb
Verb
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The company has refined the trailer somewhat in that time, but its main selling points remain the same: the ability to hitch itself to a towing vehicle and set itself up at the campground.—
Bryan Hood,
Robb Report,
8 May 2025
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Load it with lumber, hitch a trailer, or even drive into a strong headwind, and that figure can drop faster than your enthusiasm on a Monday morning.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
13 May 2025
Verb
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Oliveros promptly changed her major to communication technology and flipped headfirst into the social media scene.—
Caroline Price,
Forbes.com,
30 May 2025
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In Nu-Nerd, fashion flips the script of what society deems is cool by embracing the antithesis the high fashion trends.—
Angela Velasquez,
Sourcing Journal,
30 May 2025
Verb
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The graduate is not only bummed about the sister’s absence.—
Brian Anthony Hernandez,
People.com,
25 May 2025
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Everyone — from those actually paying to the ones still bumming a log-in — wants to know how Netflix and other streaming services’ crackdowns on password sharing affect them.—
Savannah Salazar,
Vulture,
20 May 2025
Verb
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This is because of the increasing demands for networking and switches to connect exponentially larger clusters, from spine to leaf in the front end and back end, rack to rack and accelerator to accelerator.—
Beth Kindig,
Forbes,
19 Dec. 2024
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Such a cacophony means that the reader keeps having to leaf back to make sense of the storyline.—
Ruth Margalit,
The New York Review of Books,
30 Mar. 2023
Verb
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On May 19, 1977, 20-year-old Colleen was hitchhiking on the way from her Eugene, Ore., home to a friend’s birthday party when she was picked up by a couple, Cameron and Janice, who had their baby in the car.—
Makena Gera,
People.com,
20 May 2025
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When Stan Love would take a shower, Mike Love wrote, Mr. Wilson would sometimes sneak out in his robe and hitchhike in search of drugs.—
Jeré Longman,
New York Times,
1 May 2025
Verb
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After reenacting the initial district court trial — in which Colvin, Browder, McDonald and Smith testified—the opera skims over the Supreme Court decision upholding the ruling.—
Hannah Edgar,
Chicago Tribune,
7 June 2025
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Baltimore Fire Chief James Wallace said crews deployed containment booms and began skimming the water almost immediately, working to isolate and extract the diesel fuel, which contains a red dye.—
Barney Henderson,
MSNBC Newsweek,
5 June 2025
Video
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Cite this Entry
“Thumb.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/thumb. Accessed 12 Jun. 2025.
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