Meaning of Idiom ‘Put Your (or one’s) Finger On Something’
To put one’s finger on something is to be able to understand something or know the reason for it; to describe something; to identify something. 1Kirkpatrick, Elizabeth M. The Wordsworth Dictionary of Idioms. Ware: Wordsworth, 1995.,2Heacock, Paul. Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2010.,3Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.
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Usage
This expression is usually used in the negative, as in “I can’t put my finger on it.”
Examples Of Use
“There is something familiar about that guy, but I can’t put my finger on it.”
“I know there is something wrong with these financial records,” said the investigator, “but I can’t quite put my finger on what it is.”
“I’ve been trying to fix my car for a week with no success but my cousin, who is a whiz at engines, put his finger on the problem after just a few seconds.”
Origin
Used since the late 1800’s.
The allusion here is to looking through a written document or book, viewing a piece of art, etc. and physically laying one’s finger on some important aspect, fact, etc.
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