Thimble

Thimble, a metallic cap or sheath used to protect the end of the finger in sewing. Seamstresses use a thimble having a rounded end with numerous small pits or indentations. Those used by tailors are open at the end. The manufacture of timbles is very simple. Coin silver is mostly used, generally silver dollars, which are melted, and cast into solid ingots. These are rolled into the required thickness, and cut by a stamp into disks of any required size. A solid metal bar the size of the inside of the intended thimble, moved by powerful machinery up and down in a bottomless mold of the size of the outside of the thimble, bends the circular disks into the thimble shape as fast as they can be placed under the descending bar. The work of brightening, polishing, and decorating is done on a lathe.

Entry from Everybody's Cyclopedia, 1912.

thimble

A watch.

The swell flashes a rum thimble ; the gentleman sports a fine watch.

The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

Thim"ble (?), n. [OE. thimbil, AS. mel, fr. ma a thumb. 56. See Thumb.]

1.

A kind of cap or cover, or sometimes a broad ring, for the end of the finger, used in sewing to protect the finger when pushing the needle through the material. It is usually made of metal, and has upon the outer surface numerous small pits to catch the head of the needle.

2. Mech.

Any thimble-shaped appendage or fixure.

A tubular piece, generally a strut, through which a bolt or pin passes.

A fixed or movable ring, tube, or lining placed in a hole.

A tubular cone for expanding a flue; -- called ferrule in England.

3. Naut.

A ring of thin metal formed with a grooved circumference so as to fit within an eye-spice, or the like, and protect it from chafing.

© Webster 1913.