lay finger on

[fing-ger]

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noun

any of the terminal members of the hand, especially one other than the thumb.

a part of a glove made to receive a finger.

the breadth of a finger as a unit of measurement; digit.

the length of a finger: approximately 4¹/₂ inches (11 cm).

Slang. an informer or spy.

EXPAND

something like a finger in form or use, as a projection or pointer: a finger of land leading out into the bay; the finger on the speedometer.

any of various projecting parts of machines.

COLLAPSE

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verb (used with object)

to touch with the fingers; toy or meddle with; handle.

to touch with the fingers so as to mar or spoil: Please don't finger the vegetables.

10.

to pilfer; filch.

11.

Music.

to play on (an instrument) with the fingers.

to perform or mark (a passage of music) with a certain fingering.

12.

Slang.

to inform against or identify (a criminal) to the authorities: He fingered the man who robbed the bank.

to designate as a victim, as of murder or other crime.

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verb (used without object)

13.

to touch or handle something with the fingers.

14.

to extend in or as in the shape of a finger: Landing piers finger out into the river along the city's shoreline.

Idioms

15.

burn one's fingers, to suffer injury or loss by meddling or by acting rashly: If you get involved in the controversy, you may burn your fingers.

16.

give (someone) the finger, Slang. to express contempt for by or as by the obscene gesture of pointing the middle finger upward while folding the other fingers against the palm.

17.

have a finger in the pie,

to have an interest or share in something.

to meddle in something.

18.

keep one's fingers crossed, to wish for good luck or success, as in a specific endeavor: Keep your fingers crossed that I get the job.

19.

lay/put one's finger on,

to indicate exactly; remember: I know the name, but I can't put my finger on it.

to discover; locate: I haven't been able to lay my finger on the book you requested.

EXPAND

20.

not lift a finger, to make not even a small attempt; do nothing: The house was falling into ruin, but he wouldn't lift a finger to repair it.

21.

put the finger on, Slang. finger (def. 12).

22.

slip through one's fingers,

to elude one, as an opportunity not taken; escape: She let the chance of a lifetime slip through her fingers.

to pass or be consumed quickly: Money just slips through his fingers.

23.

snap one's fingers (at), to exhibit disdain or contempt (for): She snaps her fingers at the local gossip.

24.

twist/wrap around one's little finger, to exert one's influence easily or successfully upon: He has a remarkable talent for twisting people around his little finger.

COLLAPSE

Origin:
before 900; Middle English, Old English; cognate with German Finger, Dutch vinger, Old Norse fingr, Gothic figgrs

Related forms

fin·ger·er, noun

fin·ger·less, adjective

re·fin·ger, verb

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"On the thirty-first day of March, one hundred and forty-two years before this, probably about this time in the afternoon, there were hurriedly paddling down this part of the river, between the pine woods which then fringed these banks, two white women and a boy, who had left an island at the mouth of the Contoocook before daybreak. They were lightly clad for the season, in the English fashion, and handled their paddles unskillfully, but with nervous energy and determination, and at the bottom of their canoe lay the still bleeding scalps of ten of the aborigines. They were Hannah Dustan, and her nurse, Mary Neff,... and an English boy, named Samuel Lennardson, escaping from captivity among the Indians. On the 15th of March previous, Hannah Dustan had been compelled to rise from childbed, and half dressed, with one foot bare, accompanied by her nurse, commence an uncertain march, in still inclement weather, through the snow and the wilderness. She had seen her seven elder children flee with their father, but knew not of their fate. She had seen her infant's brains dashed out against an apple tree, and had left her own and her neighbors' dwellings in ashes. When she reached the wigwam of her captor, situated on an island in the Merrimack, more than twenty miles above where we now are, she had been told that she and her nurse were soon to be taken to a distant Indian settlement, and there made to run the gauntlet naked.... Having determined to attempt her escape, she instructed the boy to inquire of one of the men, how he should dispatch an enemy in the quickest manner, and take his scalp. "Strike 'em there," said he, placing his finger on his temple, and he also showed him how to take off the scalp. On the morning of the 31st she arose before daybreak, and awoke her nurse and the boy, and taking the Indians' tomahawks, they killed them all in their sleep, excepting one favorite boy, and one squaw who fled wounded with him to the woods. The English boy struck the Indian who had given him the information, on the temple, as he had been directed. They then collected all the provision they could find, and took their master's tomahawk and gun, and scuttling all the canoes but one, commenced their flight to Haverhill, distant about sixty miles by the river. But after having proceeded a short distance, fearing that her story would not be believed if she should escape to tell it, they returned to the silent wigwam, and taking off the scalps of the dead, put them into a bag as proofs of what they had done, and then, retracing their steps to the shore in the twilight, recommenced their voyage."

-Henry David Thoreau