thumb a lift BrE informal
thumb a ride AmE informal

John's solution was to thumb a lift from the next car that came along.

Two or three cars passed me and I tried to thumb a lift, but they didn't stop.

A car approached, and on an impulse I thumbed a lift.

Walk, thumb a lift, or wait for a local bus at the park entrance to take you to the sea.

Prior to that I was happy to pick up anyone thumbing a lift.

If the train doesn't show, it's time to thumb a lift.

He thumbed a lift which took him all the way to Cheltenham.

Or blogging - I suggest we all log off and thumb a lift to have this discussion.

We thumbed a lift from the edge of town to the mountains, where we began our hike.

We drove on to the rave and left her walking, thumbing a lift.'

She asked me to drop her off at the main road so she could thumb a lift up north on a lorry."

If you can find him, you can probably thumb a lift with him."

You try to thumb a lift from the cars as they approach from either direction, sweeping you with their headlights.

Was she definitely thumbing a lift?'

"Thumbed a lift.

But if his car broke down and I saw him thumbing a lift, I wouldn't pick him up, I'd run him over".

Luke Bouverie missed the last bus out of Woodborough to Loxford, so he thumbed a lift.

Probably the boy's halfway home by now, ahead of his party, probably he thumbed a lift the other way along this road as soon as he got intolerably bored.

She should know because she has competed three times, once dressed as a fairy who thumbed a lift from a passing coach full of male senior citizens, which really made their day.

My prodigal sister, or someone fitting her description, had been spotted thumbing a lift on Route 5, a few miles south of Cornish, near the Maine-New Hampshire border.

It costs nothing, its carbon footprint is tiny and there are now websites, like Digihitch and Hitchwiki, that allow hitchers to exchange vernacular knowledge about the best places to thumb a lift.

Anyone who saw the woman's silver-coloured Fiesta on Saturday or who may have seen the man thumbing a lift in the Northwich area, should contact Greater Manchester Police on 061 871 5050.

We turned round and as we passed our starting point, there was a woman - obviously a pilgrim with her walking poles and rucksack - limping along the side of the road, trying to thumb a lift.

In The Times, critic David Sinclair was particularly scathing: "On North and South, it sounds as if he has thumbed a lift up the road to a mock-Texan bar somewhere in his native Scotland.

Taxis are as scarce as frogs' teeth in early morning Bombay and I had a long walk back to the Fort District before I managed to thumb a lift on a lorry rumbling down towards the docks.

I'll thumb a ride to town with you, if I may.

Or we can get out there on the highway and try to thumb a ride.

The next day Al picks up a woman thumbing a ride.

They were going to go over to him but he wandered up to the road and must have thumbed a ride.

It was easy to see why someone thumbing a ride might get dropped off in passing.

He thumbed a ride back to the village, without having to give his lift a story of any kind.

So I wait farther up the highway and thumb a ride from the driver.

I'm standing on the side of the road, thumbing a ride, when this cop car comes by.

Time to run the so in these woods and come out further north and then thumb a ride city.

We were accustomed to natives trying to thumb a ride and had our orders not to pick up anyone.

To most of us, that means "thumbing a ride," asking a driver to pick you up.

You should never try to get hold of a vehicle but you may thumb a ride on an American army truck.

To put it another way, they are trying to thumb a ride through life-and the parade passes them by.

Three miles out of town a panel truck rumbled up behind them and the boys thumbed a ride.

In that case, Danny Romero had better start thumbing a ride.

We had to thumb a ride with Ken."

Thumbing a ride up to Troy from there.

One chilly mid-September dawn had found him thumbing a ride on the highway south.

If I don't crack it, I'll be thumbing a ride out of town.

I thought it kind of cute that Madonna thumbed a ride wearing nothing but high heels and carrying a purse.

"Next time you get captured," he said, "we'll rescue the villains and let you thumb a ride home by yourself!"

He'd probably ridden to the interstate highway and thumbed a ride, or maybe walked to a bus stop or something.

Doherty is also seen standing up, attempting to thumb a ride from a passing speed boat.

In one of them, I was a drifter, walking alongside a desert highway under a full moon, thumbing a ride without success.

She would thumb a ride.