0 the short thick finger of the hand, set at a different angle from the other four -- tommelfinger
1 the part of a glove or mitten covering this finger. -- tommel
2 (often with through) to turn over (the pages of a book) with the thumb or fingers -- blade hurtigt igennem
She was thumbing through the dictionary.
Follow with the eyes keeping the head still - three times with each hand and three times with the hands together, thumbs crossed.
From this standpoint, the evolutionarily advantaged functions of divided attention, upright bipedal ambulation and opposable thumbs can be seen as vulnerable.
I suspect this a book that will be heavily thumbed over on library shelves by people with a wide range of interests.
Information retrieval by means of the computer's search engine takes much less time than thumbing through the pages of an alphabetic dictionary.
Not to be capable or technically proficient, but to be a bit all thumbs.
Feedback about accuracy was given each trial in the form of a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" picture.
From an evolutionary standpoint, upright bipedal ambulation, opposable thumbs and divided attention each are high order.
Gorillas are more than camels with opposable thumbs.