A thimble is a small cap, usually made of metal or plastic, that you wear on your fingertip to protect it while sewing. When you push a needle through thick fabric, the blunt end of the needle presses against the thimble instead of painfully poking your finger. Thimbles have small dimples or ridges on the outside that help grip the needle as you push it through.

Before sewing machines became common in homes, people did all their sewing by hand, and a thimble was an essential tool. Skilled seamstresses could sew remarkably fast using a thimble, working on everything from simple repairs to elaborate dresses. Today, people who enjoy hand-sewing, quilting, or embroidery still use thimbles, especially for projects with multiple layers of fabric.

The word also appears in the board game Monopoly, where the thimble was one of the classic playing pieces for decades. This made sense when the game was invented in the 1930s, since almost everyone knew what a thimble was and many homes had one in a sewing basket.