[In reference to diminutive stature: cf. THUMB sb. 3.]
1. A dwarf or pigmy of popular tradition or fable, whose history was common as a chap-book; hence a name for a dwarf or diminutive male person; also contemptuously, a petty or insignificant person, a pigmy holder of a high position. Also attrib.
1579. Fulke, Heskins Parl., 235. They feigned him to be a little child like Tom Thumb.
1621. R. Johnson (title), The History of Tom Thumbe.
1630. (title) Tom Thumbe, his Life and Death.
1661. Needham, Hist. Eng. Reb., 74. Princes are bravd by Jack and Jill, Wat Tilers and Tom Thums.
1665. Surv. Aff. Netherl., 93, Jan. 20. 1651. they Voted our Tom Thombs a free State forsooth, and Commonwealth.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Tom-thumb, a Dwarf.
1806. Naval Chron., XV. 159. The Tom Thumb egotism of the Corsican Usurper.
1889. N. W. Linc. Gloss., Tom Thumb, a small and insignificant person.
1907. Daily Chron., 6 Feb., 5/5. Tom Thumb is a name generally given by showmen to liliputians. The first holder of this title was Charles Stratton, who was brought to London by Barnum.
2. attrib. Applied to dwarf varieties or specimens of animals or plants; also, ellipt. or absol. as sb. a. A kind of dwarf oyster. b. A dwarf variety of cabbage, lettuce, or other vegetable, of antirrhinum, nasturtium, or other flower.
1876. Rep. Sel. Committee Oyster Fisheries, 49/2. Those oysters which you call buttons, I believe, or which some people call Tom Thumbs. Ibid., 77/2. A sort of dwarf oyster, or Tom Thumb oyster, would pass through the two-inch ring.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 29 Oct., 1/3. He had gone on sowing radishes and broccolimaking odd signs with pieces of stick and coloured paper to mark tom-thumb or giant, early or late [varieties].
Mod. The Tom Thumb nasturtiums are preferable to the long straggling forms. Are the antirrhinums Tom Thumbs?
3. A popular name of some British wild flowers.
1886. Britten & Holland, Eng. Plant-n., Tom Thumb, Lathyrus pratensis. Berks. Suss. Ibid., Appendix, Tom Thumb, Lotus corniculatus. Oxf.