| 释义 |
twiddle one's thumbs, to twiddle one's thumbsFig. to pass the time by twirling one's thumbs. What am I supposed to do while waiting for you? Sit here and twiddle my thumbs? Don't sit around twiddling your thumbs. Get busy!See also: thumb, twiddletwiddle one's thumbsBe bored or idle, as in There I sat for three hours, twiddling my thumbs, while he made call after call. This expression alludes to the habit of idly turning one's thumbs about one another during a period of inactivity. [Mid-1800s] See also: thumb, twiddle twiddle (one's) thumbs To do little or nothing; be idle.See also: thumb, twiddletwiddle one's thumbs, toTo be bored; to be idle. The habit of idly turning one’s thumbs about each other during a period of enforced inactivity gave rise to this cliché, which began life in the mid-nineteenth century. “You’d have all the world do nothing . . . but twiddle its thumbs,” wrote Douglas Jerrold (Mrs. Caudle’s Curtain Lectures, 1846).See also: twiddle |