By the pricking of my thumbs

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For the Agatha Christie novel, see By the Pricking of My Thumbs (novel).

"By the pricking of my thumbs" is the first half of a line in Act 4, Scene 1 of William Shakespeare's play Macbeth. Uttered by the Second Witch, the line reads:

By the pricking of my thumbs,

Something wicked this way comes.

Open, locks,

Whoever knocks!

The notion of a pricked thumb came from ancient Rome. It was said by seers that palpitations of the heart, the flickering of the eye and the pricking of a thumb were all warnings of evil. In particular, a pricking sensation in the left thumb was very worrisome.

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