finger 
II. intrans. To touch something with the fin- 
gers, as a musical instrument in playing it. 
Back . . . did Pelleas in an utter sliame 
Creep with his shadow thro' the court again, 
Fingering at his sword-handle. 
Tennyson, Pelleas and Ettarre. 
finger-alphabet (fing'ger-aF'fa-bet), . Certain 
positions and motions of the hands and fingers, 
signifying the common alphabet, used by deaf- 
mutes. See deaf-mute. 
finger-and-toe (fing'ger-and-to'), n. The popu- 
lar name for dactylorhiza, a disease in turnips. 
See dactylorhiza. 
finger-bar (fing'ger-bar), n. The bar of a reap- 
er or mower supporting the fingers and the re- 
ciprocating knives. 
finger-board (fing'ger-bord), . 1. In the violin, 
guitar, and similar instruments, the thin, usu- 
ally rounded, strip of wood on the neck, above 
which the strings are stretched, and against 
which, in stopping, they are pressed by the play- 
er's fingers. See cut under violin. 2. In the 
pianoforte and organ, the keyboard. 
finger-bowl (fing'ger-bol), n. A bowl or glass 
for holding the water used to cleanse the fin- 
gers at table. Also finger-glass. 
fingerbreadth (fing'ger-bredth), n. The 
breadth of a finger; specifically, a long mea- 
sure, the fourth part of a palm. The old English 
' ' flngerbreadth by assize " was ,"5 foot. The word is of ten 
used to translate names of foreign units derived from the 
natural flngerbreadth. 
4 barlycornes in bredth make 1 fingerbreadth. 
T. Hill, Arithmetic (1600). 
24 fingerbreadths = 1 foot. 
Tate, Modern Cambist (17th ed., Persia), p. 136. 
Natural flngerbreadth, the breadth of a person's finger, 
used as a unit of length. 
finger-brush (fing'ger-brush), n. A brush used 
in sizing book-covers of leather or cloth after 
blanking or tooling, and preparatory to gilding. 
finger-coral (fing'ger-kor"al), . A millepore 
coral, Millepora alcicornis. It is used for orna- 
ment. 
finger-counting (fing'ger-koun'ting), n. Count- 
ing upon the fingers. 
2224 
every sound, are the flrst steps in the series which ends 
in the discovery of unseen planets. 
//. Spencer, Education, p. 129. 
2f. Beckoning with the finger. 3. In music: 
(a) The method of using the fingers upon a 
fingered instrument, especially so as to produce 
given effects in the best way. The fingering of the 
pianoforte has developed gradually, the thumb and the 
little finger being but slightly used until the middle of the 
eighteenth century. 
In fing'ring some (bards) unskill'd, but only us'd to sing 
Unto the other's harp. Drayton, Polyolbion, iv. 174. 
(b) An indication by figures, upon a piece of 
music, of the fingers to be used in its perform- 
ance. For the pianoforte two systems of lingering are 
in use : the German or European, which marks the thumb 
1, and the fingers 2, 3, 4, and 5 in order; and the American, 
which marks the thumb x, and the fingers 1, 2, 3, and 4 in 
order. 
4. Delicate work done with the fingers. 
finicality 
finger-steel (fing'ger-stel), . A small whet- 
ting instrument, shaped like an awl or a skewer, 
used by curriers to sharpen their knives. 
finger-tip (fing'ger-tip), n. The end or tip of 
a hnger. 
The finger-tips, especially of the right hand, have an of- 
fice similar to that performed by the yellow-spot of the 
retina ; they are the centre or hearth of clear perceptions 
of touch. G. T. Latld, Physiol. Psychology, p. 417. 
To have at one's finger-tips, to be practically familiar 
with. 
fingian, . See finnan. 
fingle-fanglet (fing'gl-fang'gl), n. [A var. re- 
dupl. of fanglc.] A trifle. [Colloq.] 
And, though we're all as near of kindred 
As ttr outward man is to the inward, 
We agree in nothing, but to wrangle 
About the slightest finqle-fangle. 
S. Butler, Hudibras, III. Hi. 454. 
Not any skill d in loops of fingering fine 
With this so curious network might compare. 
Spenser. 
A shady, fresh, and ripply cove, 
Where nested was an arbor, overwove 
fingram(fing'gram),. Worsted spun of combed 
wool on the small wheel. [Scotch.] 
There finyram stockins spun on rocks lyes. 
Colvil, Mock Poem, ii. 9. 
fingrigO (fing-grig'6), n. [The Jamaica name.] 
By many a summers silent >"^- Endyn]ion , In Jamaica, tfe Pisonia aculeata, a spiny, shrub- 
by climber. 
firiial (fin'i-al), n. [< ML. "finialis, < ~L. finis, end: 
see fine 1 arid -a?.] 1. In arch., the ornamental 
termination or apex of a pinnacle, canopy, ga- 
They may have adopted the reverse order, from thumb 
to little flnger, as many savages do, and as in fact the Greeks 
and Romans did with that later and more complicated 
system of fingercounting which we find in use in the first 
century of our era. Gow, Greek Mathematics, 8. 
finger-cymbals (fing'ger-sim"balz), n. pi. Cas- 
tanets. 
fingered (fing'g6rd), a. 1. Having fingers: com- 
monly in composition with a qualifying term : 
as, live-fingered. 
Fingered and thumbed. Skelton, Poems, p. 124. 
2. In zool. and bot., same as digitate. 3. In mu- 
sic : (a) Played by the individual fingers, as a 
stringed, keyed, or holed instrument, (b) Pro- 
duced by the use of the fingers or by the choice 
of a particular fingering, as a tone or a passage, 
(c) Having the intended fingering marked : as, 
a piece fingered throughout. 
fingerer (fing'ger-er), TO. One who fingers ; one 
who handles that to which he has no right ; a 
pilferer. Webster. 
finger-fern (fing'ger-fern), n. A name applied 
to Asplenium Ceterach, and to a variety of Sco- 
lopendrimn vulgare. 
finger-flower (fing'ger-flou'er), n. The fox- 
glove, Digitalis purpurea. 
finger-glass (fing'ger-glas), n. Same as finger- 
bowl. 
After dinner, when she rose from table, her own servant 
presented her with a finger-glass and water, which nobody 
else had. Greville, Memoirs, April 1, 1830. 
finger-grass (fing'ger-gras), n. The common 
crab-grass, Panicum sanguinale. 
finger-grip (fing'ger-grip), . An implement 
for regaining a rod or tool which has been 
dropped or broken in a bored shaft. 
finger-guard (fing'ger-gard), . That part of 
a sword-guard which is extended parallel or 
nearly parallel to the grip, and protects the fin- 
gers. The final and elaborated form of this is 
called the knuckle-bow. See cut under hilt. 
finger-hole (fing'ger-hol), n. In musical instru- 
ments, as flutes, oboes, clarinets, etc., a hole in 
the side of the tube so placed that it may be 
closed by a finger of the player, that the tone 
produced may be modified in pitch. On elaborate 
instruments the holes are often so numerous and so wide- 
ly dispersed that they can be closed only by an intricate 
mechanism of levers. 
fingering (fing'ger-ing), n. [< ME. fingering, 
fynguryng; verbal n. of finger, v.~\ 1. The act 
of touching lightly or handling. 
These fingerings and suckings of every thing it [the in- 
fant] can lay hold of, these open-mouthed listenings to 
5. A thick, loose woolen yarn used for knitting 
stockings, etc. [Great Britain.] 
finger-key (fing'ger-ke), n. A key for opening 
and closing electric circuits, operated by the 
fingers ; the ordinary transmitter of the Morse 
telegraph system. 
finger ling (fing'ger-ling) , n. [Cf . ME. fingerling, 
fyngyrlynge (= D. ringerling = MLG. ringerlink 
= G. fingerling, a finger-stall, MHG. vingerlinc, 
a ring); < finger + dim. -ling 1 .'] If. A finger 
of a glove. 
Fyngerlynge of a glove, digltabulum. 
Prompt. Pan., p. 161. 
2. Some small thing no bigger than a finger; 
specifically, a very small salmon or a small 
trout. 
When the salmon is just hatched, he is known as fry, or 
fingerling. St. Nicholas, XIII. 740. 
finger-mark (fing'ger-mark), n. A mark, es- 
pecially a soil or stain, made by a finger. 
The application of & finger-mark, either as an autograph 
in lamp-black on ordinary paper, in wax, or on prepared 
paper, which would instantly print the most delicate rugse 
of the damp flnger impressed on it, ought immediately to 
take the place of the present clumsy cross which, in spite 
of school boards, will for a long time yet continue to figure 
in various documents. 
St. James's Budget, Dec. 24, 1880, p. 7. 
finger-mirror (fing'ger-mir'*or), n. A dental 
hand-mirror supported by a clasp into which, 
when it is used, a finger may be inserted. 
finger-nut (fing'ger-nut), . In mach., a nut hav- 
ing wings which can be grasped by the fingers. 
finger-plate (fing'ger-plat), n. A plate of metal 
or porcelain fixed on the edge of a door where 
the handle is, to prevent soiling by the hand. 
finger-point (fing'ger-point), M. 1. The point 
or end of the finger. 2. That at which the fin- 
ger is pointed. [Bare.] 
He seeks to be what he ought; and is not content to 
dream on through life, the shadow of greatness, or the 
finger-point of scorn. Story, Misc. Writings, p. 602. 
finger-post (fing'ger-post), n. A post with pro- 
jecting arm or arms for pointers, often termi- 
nating in the form of fingers, set up for the 
direction of travelers, generally where roads 
cross or divide. 
He threw himself in the attitude of a finger-post, magnif- 
icently and mutely suggesting that I should take myself 
away from his presence. T. Hook, Jack Brag. 
The last cartoon of the year represents Louis Napoleon 
recklessly galloping a blind horse towards the edge of a 
precipice, which a finger-post indicates as the road " to 
glory." Fortnightly Rev., N. S., XL. 63. 
finger-puff (fing'ger-puf), n. In hair-dressing, 
a long and slender puff, often made by rolling 
the hair over a finger. 
finger-reading (fing'ger-re'ding), n. A system 
of reading for the blind in which the fingers are 
passed over letters raised sufficiently from the 
paper to be distinguished. 
finger-shell (fing'ger-shel), n. A marine shell 
resembling a finger. E. D. 
finger-Shield (fing'ger-sheld), n. A shield for 
a finger, used in sewing to protect the first fin- 
ger of the left hand from the needle, or the lit- 
tle finger of the right hand from cutting by the 
thread. 
finger-sponge (fing'ger-spunj), . One of va- 
rious slender, branching sponges, of unmer- 
chantable quality, found in Florida ; a glove- 
sponge. 
finger-stall (fing'ger-stal), n. A cover or cot 
worn on a finger to protect it, as when injured, 
or in dissecting, etc. 
1. I- inial. A. D. 1330. Cathedral of Amiens, France. ( From Viollet-le- 
Duc's "Diet, de 1' Architecture.") 2. Finial, 151)1 century. 
ble, or the like, consisting usually of a knob or 
composition of foliage. By older writers the 
word is used to denote not only the termina- 
tion, but the whole pyramidal mass. 
From this faire Palace then he takes his Front, 
From that his Finials. 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, i. 1. 
The white finials of Milan Cathedral shining somewhere 
in the distance. D. G. Mitchell, Wet Days. 
2. In decorative art, by extension from archi- 
tecture, the ornamental termination, usually a 
knob, cluster of leaves, or the like, of any up- 
ward-pointing part. 
He groped as blind, and seem'd 
Always about to fall, grasping the pews 
And oaken finials till he touch'd the door. 
Tennyson, Aylmer's Field. 
finic (fin'ik), a. Same as finical. [Rare.] 
Does he think to be courted for acting the finick and 
conceited? Collier. 
finical (fin'i-kal), a. [A var. of finikin, assum- 
ing the form of an adj. in -#/.] Affecting great 
nicety or extreme elegance; overnice; unduly 
particular about trifles; fastidious: same as 
finikin. 
A knave ; a rascal ; an eater of broken meats ; a base, 
proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, 
filthy, worsted-stocking knave ; a lily-liver'd, action-tak- 
ing, whoreson, glass-gazing, superserviceahle, /intca/ rogue; 
one-trunk-inheriting slave. Shal., Lear, ii. 2. 
You are too finical for me; speak plain, sir. 
B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iv. 4. 
The king also reprobated the finical embarrassments of 
the new fashions, and seldom wore new clothes. 
1. D' Israeli, Lit Char., p. 573. 
= Syn. Finical, Spruce, Foppish. Finical applies to an 
overwrought delicacy of taste in manners, dress, and 
speech ; spruce, to appearance, especially dress, a spruce 
person being too conspicuously trim for elegance or dig- 
nity ; foppish, to absorption in the vanities of dress. All 
these words are applied especially to men. See coxcomb. 
Be not too finical ; but yet be clean ; 
And wear well-fashion'd clothes, like other men. 
Dryden, tr. of Ovid's Art of Love, 1. 578. 
Gowns at length are found mere masquerade, 
The tassel'd cap and the spruce band a jest, 
A mock'ry of the world ! Cowper, Task, ii. 749. 
Foppish a ire 
And histrionic mumm'ry, that let down 
The pulpit to the level of the stage. 
Cowper, Task, ii. 562. 
finicality (fin-i-kal'i-ti), n. [< finical + -ity.~\ 
1. The state or quality of being finical ; finical- 
ness. 2. Something of a finical nature: as, 
that is a mere finicality. Prescott. 
