"finger in the dike" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "fingers in the dike",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "fingers in the dike"
      },
      "expansion": "finger in the dike (plural fingers in the dike)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "finger in the dyke"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2002, Elke Wolf -, What Hampers Part-Time Work?, →ISBN:",
          "text": "After a long bout of the Dutch Disease, the Netherlands is the only part-time economy in the world, the new champion of the continent, with the finger in the dike of unemployment.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, Dana Stabenow, A Fine and Bitter Snow, →ISBN, page 8:",
          "text": "Dan O'Brian was just a finger in the dike, but he had it stuck in a pretty vital hole.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Clifton Carothers, America's Thriving Path Forward, →ISBN:",
          "text": "Seeing our historic deficits as powerful enough leaks to collapse our nation's credit, in 2010, the Tea Party rose up to stick their finger in the dike, pledging to stop America's excessive public debt from growing further until we could agree on a path for recovery.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative form of finger in the dyke"
      ],
      "id": "en-finger_in_the_dike-en-noun-rqYxvPIs",
      "links": [
        [
          "finger in the dyke",
          "finger in the dyke#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "finger in the dike"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "fingers in the dike",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "fingers in the dike"
      },
      "expansion": "finger in the dike (plural fingers in the dike)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "finger in the dyke"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2002, Elke Wolf -, What Hampers Part-Time Work?, →ISBN:",
          "text": "After a long bout of the Dutch Disease, the Netherlands is the only part-time economy in the world, the new champion of the continent, with the finger in the dike of unemployment.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, Dana Stabenow, A Fine and Bitter Snow, →ISBN, page 8:",
          "text": "Dan O'Brian was just a finger in the dike, but he had it stuck in a pretty vital hole.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Clifton Carothers, America's Thriving Path Forward, →ISBN:",
          "text": "Seeing our historic deficits as powerful enough leaks to collapse our nation's credit, in 2010, the Tea Party rose up to stick their finger in the dike, pledging to stop America's excessive public debt from growing further until we could agree on a path for recovery.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative form of finger in the dyke"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "finger in the dyke",
          "finger in the dyke#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "finger in the dike"
}