From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishthe thumbs up/downthe thumbs up/downinformalACCEPTREJECT/NOT ACCEPT when an idea or plan is officially accepted or not accepted The project was finally given the thumbs up. Her performance got the thumbs down from the critics. → thumb
Examples from the Corpus
given the thumbs up• The Dole campaign has not yet given the thumbs up, preferring to wait for the results of Super Tuesday. 