You hear a lot of stories about a father who keeps his thumb on a son.

I couldn't get any answer to the bell, though I kept my thumb on it for minutes at a time.

Worth about thirty million and keeps his thumb on every penny of it.

He shot himself a few years later, which saved me the trouble of keeping my thumb on him any longer.

He kept his thumb on the page and slowly read the phrase out again.

The rhyme is sometimes extended with "Five, six, seven, eight, try to keep your thumb straight."

Elvis pressed the trigger button and kept his thumb down.

"The natural thing is to keep your thumb poised some distance above the button," he says.

Tim flashed it, but kept his thumb over the name.

Then I showed him the photograph, keeping my thumb across the writing.