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Reader question: Please explain this sentence: He had these families under his thumb. My comments: Sounds like a mafia story. Sounds like all “these families” were members of a gang of the mafia type and “he” acts like the big boss, having all of them under firm, relentless control. Anyways, that’s what under the thumb means. If you have people under your thumb, you’re kind of, like, likening them to a small insect, such as an ant on the table. If you put your thumb down you have the ant completely covered underneath your big finger – air tight and leaving no wiggle room – and if you’re really being cruel and use a little force and squeeze the ant against the table, why, you can easily nip and destroy the innocent thing. That’s interpreting it literally, of course. Metaphorically speaking, having someone under the proverbial thumb is likewise, descriptive of any relationship that’s very unequal, a relationship in which one party, the owner of the thumb, so to say, is the dominant party while the other side, whoever it is that resides under the proverbial thumb, is totally powerless. In other words, one party, the thumb or rather its owner is big and powerful and all controlling while the other party is small, insignificant and totally at mercy. Needless to say, the thumb owner gets to do what it wants to do but the members of other party, who are under the thumb, have to do whatever the figurative thumb owner tells them to. | 
