subs. (common).—A dwarf.

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  1599.  NASHE, Lenten Stuffe (GROSART, Works, v. 248). Though the greatnesse of the redde herring be not small (as small a HOPPE-ON-MY-THUMBE as hee seemeth).

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  1603.  DEKKER, etc., Patient Grissell, IV., ii., in Wks. (GROSART) vi., 195. Bab. No; he shall not haue them [children]: knocke out his braines, and saue the little HOP-A-MY-THOMBES.

3

  1748.  SMOLLETT, Roderick Random, ch. xl You pitiful HOP-O’-MY-THUMB coxcomb.

4

  1764.  O’HARA, Midas, i., 5.

          Daph.  You stump o’ th’ gutter, you HOP O’ MY THUMB!
A husband must for you from Lilliput come.

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  1785.  GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. HOP-O-MY-THUMB. She was such a HOP-O-MY-THUMB that a pigeon, on sitting on her shoulder, might pick a pea out of her a—se.

6

  1821.  SCOTT, Kenilworth, ch. xi. A mean-looking HOP-O’-MY-THUMB sort of person.

7

  1837.  R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Some Account of a New Play.’ A HOP-O’-MY-THUMB of a Page.

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  ENGLISH SYNONYMS.—Go-by-the-ground; grub; grundy; Jack Sprat; little breeches; shrimp; stump-of-the-gutter; tom-tit. See also, FORTY-FOOT.

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