Link Centre Dictionary

finger

fin·ger

UK/ˈfɪŋɡəː/ US/ˈfɪŋɡəː/ common informal slang uk us
noun (3) verb (4)

noun

1.

any of the terminal members of the hand (sometimes excepting the thumb)

  • “her fingers were long and thin”
2.
3.

the part of a glove that provides a covering for one of the fingers

verb

1.

feel or handle with the fingers

  • “finger the binding of the book”
Synonyms
2.

examine by touch

  • “Feel this soft cloth!”
  • “The customer fingered the sweater”
Synonyms
3.

search for on the computer

  • “I fingered my boss and found that he is not logged on in the afternoons”
4.

indicate the fingering for the playing of musical scores for keyboard instruments

Origin

PIE word *pénkʷe From Middle English fynger, finger, from Old English finger (“finger”), from Proto-West Germanic *fingr, from Proto-Germanic *fingraz (“finger”), from Proto-Indo-European *penkʷrós, from *pénkʷe (“five”). Cognate with West Frisian finger, German and Low German Finger, Dutch vinger, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish finger, Faroese and Icelandic fingur; see also Old Armenian հինգեր-որդ (hinger-ord, “fifth”). More at five.

Phrases

  • all fingers and thumbs
  • at one's fingertips
  • big finger
  • black finger crab
  • board finger
  • burn one's fingers
  • Chinese finger puzzle
  • Chinese finger trap

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Parts

Part of

Related verbs

Entails

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.