fine-rolls 
counts of fines paid to the king for licenses to 
alienate lands, for freedom from knight s ser- 
vice, for pardons, wardships, etc. Encijc. lint., 
finery 1 (fi'ner-i), . [< fine*, ., + -try, collec- 
tive suffix.] 1. Fineness; beauty; charm. 
[Rare.] 
Don't choose your place of study by the finery of the 
prospects. 
2 Ornament ; decoration, especially gaudy or 
excessive decoration, as ribbons, trinkets, a 
stilted or flowery style in writing, etc. 
His muse bad no objection to a russet attire ; but she 
turned with disgust from the finery of Guarinl, as tawdry 
and as paltry as the rags of a chimney-sweeper on May- 
(1 Macaulay, Milton. 
Not a dowager brushed us, bedizened with fin: ru. 
D. O. Mitchell, Bound Together, l. 
finery 2 (fi'ner-i), .; pi. fineries (-iz). [Also 
written finary ; < fine*, v., + -ery. Cf. refinery. ] 
In metal., a hearth on which cast-iron is con- 
verted into wrought-iron. Previous to the introduc- 
tion of the process known as puddling, the conversion of 
cast-iron into wrought-iron was always effected in a finery, 
and this method is still in use in various regions, espe- 
cially in Germany. For the best tin-plates, until recently, 
sheet-iron prepared in the finery was exclusively used. 
fine-spoken (fin'spo"kn), a. Using fine phrases ; 
polite in language. 
Fine-dressed and fine-spoken "chevaliers d'industrie." 
Chesterfield. 
fine-spun (fin'spun), a. Drawn to a fine thread ; 
minute; hence, over-refined; over-elaborated; 
subtile: as, fine-spun theories. 
Howe'er disguised tli' inflammatory tale, 
And covered with a fine-spun specious veil. 
Cooper, Progress of Error, 1. 328. 
They are inexhaustible in conjectures soul fine-spun con- 
clusions. Prescott, Ferd. and Isa., ii. 13, note. 
The interest of the whole is small, in consequence of 
the inherent insipidity of such A fine-spun discussion. 
Ticknor, Span. Lit., I. 385. 
finesse (fi-nes'), . [= D. Dan. finesse = Sw. 
finest, < F. finesse (= Pr. Sp. Pg. fineza = It. 
finezza), fineness, delicacy, nicety, keenness, 
subtlety, < fin, fine: see fine?, a.] 1. Artifice ; 
delicate stratagem ; subtlety of contrivance ; 
also, that quality of mind or character which 
leads to subtle actions. 
Prowde speeches and too much finesse and curiositie is 
not commendable ill an Embassadour. 
Puttenhain, Arte of Eng. Poesie, p. 223. 
A masterpiece of diplomatic finesse and political inven- 
tion electioneering viewed on the most magnificent scale, 
exhibits a political drama which for the honour and 
happiness of mankind is of rare and strange occurrence. 
/. D'lsraeli, Curios, of Lit., IV. 255. 
Compared to his brethren in the East, the Persian de- 
picted in books of travel, however distinguished by ques- 
tionzWe finesse and arrant falsity, has always presented 
a certain humorous side to European readers. 
Athenaeum, No. 3085, p. 777. 
2. In whist, the play (usually by the third hand, 
but occasionally by the second) of a card (say 
C) of the suit led, lower than another (A) in 
the hand, in the hope that an unplayed card 
(B) of intermediate value, whose position is 
still unknown, may be found to lie to the right, 
so that the trick inay be taken by the card C 
while A is reserved to take B. 3f. Fineness 
of perception. 
But he [Pope] (his musical finesse was such, 
So nice his ear, so delicate nis touch) 
Made poetry a mere mechanic art. 
Cowper, Table-Talk, 1. 6f>2. 
= Syn 1. Artifice, Manosumr, etc. (see artifice) ; skill, art- 
fulness, adroitness, craft, subterfuge. 
finesse (fi-nes'), v.; pret. and ^pp. finessed, ppr. 
finessing. [< finesse, .] I. intrans. 1. To use 
artifice or fine stratagem. 
Though secure of our hearts, yet confoundedly sick 
If they were not his own by finessing and trick. 
Goldsmith, Retaliation, 1. 106. 
2. In whist-playing, to attempt to take a trick 
by finesse. 
With minor tenace it is generally proper to finesse, the 
second round, as the best card must probably be to your 
left Pole, Whist, v. 
II. trans. In whist-playing, to practise or per- 
form a finesse with: as, to finesse a king, a 
knave, etc. 
fine-still (fin'stil), v. t. To distil, as spirits, 
from molasses, treacle, or some preparation 
of saccharine matter. 
fine-Stiller (fin'stil"er), . One who distils 
spirits from treacle or molasses. 
ftnetop-grass (fin'top-gras), . The Agrostis 
albrt (A. ndgaris), a valuable meadow- and pas- 
ture-grass. Also known as rcdto/i, lierdsgrasx. 
etc. 
finewt (iiu'ii), H. [< finew-ed, q. v.] Moldiness. 
E. I'liillipx, 1706. 
finewedt (fin'ud), . [Also written/ewoired, also 
rini'ifi-d, riinicu-cd (E. dial., etc.); < ME. (not 
found), < AS. gefinegod, moldy, musty, pp. of 
funegian, become moldy or musty (of bread), 
<fynig (pi. finie), moldy or musty (of bread), 
= OD. viniiiyli, moldy, musty, rotten, rank; 
perhaps related to/(, E./OMf 1 , and to L. /mli- 
dus, rotten. The resemblance to AS. fen mg. 
feiineg, E. fenny, marshy, muddy, dirty, is not 
phonetically close, and is accidental.] Moldy ; 
musty; decayed. 
The old moth-eaten leaden legend, and the foisty and 
frnomd festival are yet secretly laid up in corners. 
J. Favour, Antiquities, Triumph over Novelty (1619), 
[p. 334. 
A souldier's hands must oft be died with goare, 
Lest, starke with rest, they finew'd waxe, and hoare. 
Mir. for Mags., p. 417. 
finewednesst (fin'ud-nes), n. [Also i-inewedness, 
riniiewedness.] The state or quality of being 
finewed or moldy: mustiness; moldiness. 
finfeet, . Plural of finfoot. 
fin-fist (fin'fish), n. A fish of the family Polyp- 
teridfe; a fin-pike. 
fin-fold (fin'fold), TI. In ichth., a fold of the 
skin of the embryo fish in which fin-rays are 
developed. 
finfoot (fin'fut), n. 1. PI. finfoots or finfeet 
(-flits, -fet). A name of the pinnatiped or lobe- 
footed birds of Africa and South America, of 
the family Heliornithidte, related to the rails 
and coots ; a bird of the genus Heliornis or Po- 
doa; one of the sun-birds, as Heliornis snri- 
namensis or H. senegalensis.2. PI. finfeet. A 
swimming-foot ; a pleiopod, as of a crustacean. 
Which appendages [abdominal legs of stomatopods) . . . 
are used in swimming, or are fin-feet. 
G. Cuvier, Regue Animal (tr. 1849), p. 423. 
fin-footed (fin'fut" ed), a. 1. Having palmated 
feet, or feet with toes 
connected by a mem- 
brane; web-footed; pal- 
miped. 2. In ornith., 
pinnatiped; having pin- 
nate feet, the toes being 
separately furnished with 
Fin-footed (Coot). flaps, as in the grebes, 
coots, phalaropes, fin- 
foots, etc. 3. In Mollusca, pteropod. 
Also fin-toed. 
finfoots, n. Plural of finfoot, 1. 
finga (fing'gii), n. The East Indian king-crow 
or drongo-stirike, Dicntrus macrocercus. 
fingent (fin'jent), a. [< ~L. fingen(t-)s, ppr. of 
fingere, form'.' See/etf.] Making; forming; 
fashioning. [Bare.] 
Ours is a most fictile world, and man is the inostfini/ent, 
plastic of creatures. Carlyle, French Rev., I. i. 2. 
finger 
Sn, , -iiii-ally (a) In zniil., one of the two parts forming :i 
chelate or forceps-joint, especially the smaller part, which 
hinges (.11 the- other. ('/) In iimeli.. any small wood en- 
metal projection on ii inarhinr, for parting materials or 
arresting motion, as the tooth of a rake, the gnpper in 
printing-presses, or the wires of a stop-motion : as, toe fin- 
./. of a harvester, in and between which the knives play. 
In Webster's loom (1872) a temporary race is formed 
by means of "lingers," inserted and withdrawn at proper 
times and two shuttles may lie thrown separately or si- 
multaneously. A- Barlow, Weaving, p. 214. 
Passing through pointed sheaths now called fingers. 
Ure, Diet., IV. 18. 
3. (a) A measure of length, a finger-breadth, 
commonly a natural finger-breadth. A finger of 
liquor is a quantity in a tumbler one natural finger-breadth 
deep The shot in a gun was similarly measured upon the 
ramrod, and still is where muzzle-loaders are used. See 
finger-breadth. 
Yet he fayled of the garlonde, 
Thre fi/nyers and mare. 
Lytell Geste of'jtobyn Ilode, (Child's Ballads, V. 114). 
Their armes are clubbes or woodden swords, flue or sixe 
foote long, and a foote broad, a finger thicke, and very 
sharpe. Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 843. 
4 fingers make 1 hand breadth. 
T. Hill, Arithmetic (1600). 
Upon entering the door [of the magazine], one of the 
guns, which had a spring to it, and was charged eight fin- 
gers deep with swan-shot, went off. 
Wirt, Patrick Henry, p. 168. 
A. finger, in Mexican law, is the sixteenth part of a foot, 
and is divided into three straws or into four grains. 
Hall, Mexican Law, p. 79. 
3 jows make 1 unglee or finger, | inch. 
Woolhouse, Measures of Bengal. 
(ft) A finger's length, commonly that of the mid- 
dle finger. 4. In music, execution, especially 
on a keyed instrument ; method of fingering : 
as, she has a good finger. 
Miss Wirt, with great deliberation, played the original 
and beautiful melody. . . . "What & tinner!" cried Mrs. 
Ponto ; and indeed it was a finger, as knotty as a turkey s 
drumstick, and splaying all over the piano. 
Thackeray, Book of Snobs, xxv. 
A finger In the pie, a share in the doing of anything ; 
frequently, officious intermeddling or interference. 
The devil speed him ! no man's pie is freed 
From his ambitions finger. Shalt., Hen. VIII., i. 1. 
Annular finger, auricular finger, etc. See the adjec- 
tives. Finger Of God, power or work of God. 
The magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of 
God. Ex. viii. 19. 
His fingers are all thumbs, said of one whose fingers 
are awkward or stitf. Mechanical finger, in microscopy, 
a device consisting of a wire, hair, or bristle fixed on a for- 
ceps, and used in separating some minute object for ex- 
amination from a mass of material on a slide. To burn 
one's fingers. See 6ni.- To have a finger in, to be 
concerned in. To have at one's fingers' ends. See 
end. To live by one's fingers' ends, to live by mechani- 
cal skill or handiwork. 
How many goodly cities could I reckon up that thrive 
wholly by trade, where thousands of inhabitants live sin- 
gular well by their fingers' ends. 
Burton, Anat. of Mel., Democritus to the Reader, p. 55. 
finger (fing'ger), ?i. [< ME. finger, < AS. finger 
= OS. fingar = OFries. finger = D. ringer = 
MLG. vinger, LG. finger = OHG. fingar, MHG. 
G. finger = Icel. fingr = Sw. D&n. finger = Goth. 
figqrs, finger. The asserted connection with 
fang is doubtful: see fang. Cf . toe and dactyl.] 
1. A digit of the fore' limb ; any one of the ter- 
minal or distal members of the hand; in a re- 
stricted sense, any digit of the hand except the 
innermost or thumb. In this restricted sense the fin- 
gers are commonly numbered from the forefinger as first 
to the little finger as fourth, but sometimes the thumb is 
counted as first. 
Put not thyfyngerys on thy dysche, 
Nothyr in flesche, nothir in fysche. 
Babees Book (E. E. T. S.), p. 18. 
The Finger on which this Ring [the wedding-ring] is to 
be worn is the fourth Finger of the left hand, next unto 
the little finger ; because, by the received Opinion of the 
Learned and Experienced in Ripping np and Anatomiz- 
ing Men's Bodies, there is a Vein of Blood which passeth 
from that fourth Finger unto the Heart called Vena amo- 
ris, Love's Vein. 
H. Sirinctmrne, quoted in Amer. Anthropology, I. 73. 
Then he put it [a crown] by again ; but to my thinking, 
he was very loth to lay his fingers off it. Shak. , J. C. , i. 2. 
I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude J 
And, with forced fingers rude, 
Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. 
Milton, Lycidas, 1. 4. 
A smaller piece amidst the precious store, 
Pinch'd close between hisym.^r and his thumb. 
Cowper, Charity, 1. 477. 
2. Something like or likened to a finger, as a 
ray of a starfish ; something resembling or serv- 
ing the purpose of a finger ; an index. 
Fancy, like the finger of a clock, 
Runs the great circuit, and is still at home. 
Cowper. Task, iv. 118. 
Autumn laying here and there 
A fiery finger on the leaves. 
Tennyson, In Memoriam, xcix. 
finger (fing'ger), ?'. [= D. vingeren = MLG. vin- 
gereren = G. fingern = Dan. fingerere, fingre = 
Sw. fingra; from the noun.] 1. trans. 1. To 
touch with the fingers ; handle : as, to finger 
money. 
Peace, childish Cupid, peace : ttiyfinger'd eye 
But cries for what, in time, will make thee cry. 
Quarles, Emblems, ii. 8, Epig. 
They began to finger the Indian Gold. 
Howell, Letters, I. i. 41. 
2. To toy or meddle with. 
Let the papers lie ; 
You would be fingering them, to anger me. 
Shak., T. G. of V., i. 2. 
Moore lingered yet two minutes ; he bent over Caroline's 
desk, and glanced at her grammar, he fingered her pen, he 
lifted her bouquet and played with it. 
Charlotte Bronte, Shirley, v. 
There is a sense in which to be always fingering one's 
motives is a sign rather of an unwholesome preoccupation 
with self than of the eagerness in disinterested service 
which helps forward mankind. 
T. II. Green, Prolegomena to Ethics, 297. 
3. To touch or take thievishly; pilfer; filch; 
secure by manipulation with the fingers. 
The king was slily fingerd from the deck. 
Shak., 3 Hen. VI., v. 1. 
4. In music: (a) To play, as an instrument re- 
quiring the use of individual fingers. 
You're a fair viol, and your sense the strings, 
Who, tinger'd to make man his lawful music, 
Would draw heav'n down, and all the gods to hearken. 
Shak., Pericles, i. 1. 
(6) To play, as a particular passage involving 
a choice among different possible modes of exe- 
cution, (c) To indicate upon a piece of music, 
by means of figures, the mode of execution with 
the fingers to be used. 5. To do or perform 
with the fingers, as a delicate piece of work, 
etc. 
