thimble

A hard, usually pitted cup worn for protection on the finger that pushes the needle in sewing.

Any of various tubular sockets or sleeves in machinery.

A metal ring fitted in an eye of a sail to prevent chafing.

A metal ring around which a rope splice is passed.

An implement used for pushing the needle in sewing, worn on one of the fingers, usually the middle finger of the right hand.

In mech., a sleeve, skein, tube, bushing, or ferrule used to join the ends of pipes, shafting, etc., or to fill an opening, expand a tube, cover an axle, etc. It is made in a variety of shapes, and is called thimble-joint, thimble-coupling, thimble-skein, etc. See cut under coupling.

Nautical, an iron or brass ring, concave on the outside so as to fit in a rope, block-strap, cringle, etc., and prevent chafe, as well as to preserve shape; also, an iron ring attached to the end of drag-ropes.

A ring or oval, made of steel with a concave section on the outside, and convex within, used to form the eye in the end of a wire rope when the latter is bent round the ring and the end spliced into the main part.

4. A cone of fat-free paper used in a fat-extraction apparatus.