black thumbとは 意味・読み方・使い方

名詞

black thumb (plural black thumbs)

1. A lack of skill in gardening; brown thumb.
   • 2007, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Close to the Bone: Life-Threatening Illness As a Soul Journey, →ISBN:

     I think of doctors as having the equivalent of green thumbs or black thumbs in gardening.

   • 2008, Yvette M. Scholl, The Legacy, →ISBN, page 72:

     First of all, call me Sam; second, you should know I have a black thumb when it comes to anything other than cactus.

   • 2011, Robert Horsman, How to Garden: A Guide to Becoming a Gardener, →ISBN, page 7:

     Odds are that if you're reading this book, you've either never gardened before or you've tried, but with no success. In fact, you probably identify as having a 'black thumb'. Maybe you've tried to grow some plants in the past and failed.

   Antonym: green thumb

2. (more generally) An inability to make animals or plants in one's care thrive.
   • 1977, Michigan State University Alumni Association Magazine:

     Before investing in a terrarium or aquarium, however, check your student for "Black Thumb Disease." Nothing is so depressing as to continually keep killing off plants or animals without knowing what's happening to them.

   • 2013, Aaron M. Bauer, Geckos: The Animal Answer Guide, →ISBN, page xiii:

     In the interest of full disclosure, I am not now and never have been a big fan of keeping reptiles as pets; I have a “black thumb” when it comes to keeping animals alive in captivity.

   • 2017, Erzabet Bishop, Mallory's Mark, →ISBN:

     Or that pet turtle the clerk in that exotic pet store had told her was unkillable. Hah. She had a black thumb.

3. A person with a black thumb.
   • 1966, John Leonard, Wyke Regis, page 269:

     "Why?" She smiled. "Especially on family occasions like this, he feels he's been something of a black thumb in the Garden of Life."

   • 1986, Stuart Woods, Deep Lie, →ISBN:

     The original Black Thumb, she was. This ability to wither, it seemed to her, had begun to extend itself into her work, for the Majorov research had come to what, seemingly, was a dead end.

   • 2017, Deb Kastner, Texas Christmas Twins, →ISBN:

     “Anyway," she said, taking a deep breath and swiping a palm across her cheeks to remove the lingering moisture, "at the end of the day, I destroyed it. What's the opposite of green thumb? Black thumb? That's me.”

4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see black,‎ thumb.