Emily Dickinson Lexicon

THIM'BLE, n. [I know not the origin or primary sense of this word. Possibly it may be from thumb. In Gaelic, temeheal is a cover.]

1. A kind of cap or cover for the finger, usually made of metal, used by tailors and seamstresses for driving the needle through cloth.
2. In sea language, an iron ring with a hollow or groove round its whole circumference, to receive the rope which is splised about it. Mar. Dict.