"lay a finger on" meaning in English

See lay a finger on in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-lay a finger on.ogg Forms: lays a finger on [present, singular, third-person], laying a finger on [participle, present], laid a finger on [participle, past], laid a finger on [past]
Etymology: From Middle English fynger on (hem) to leyn (“touch (someone) with hostile intent”). Etymology templates: {{inh|en|enm||fynger on (hem) to leyn|t=touch (someone) with hostile intent}} Middle English fynger on (hem) to leyn (“touch (someone) with hostile intent”) Head templates: {{en-verb|lay<,,laid> a finger on}} lay a finger on (third-person singular simple present lays a finger on, present participle laying a finger on, simple past and past participle laid a finger on)
  1. (idiomatic, colloquial) To merely touch. Tags: colloquial, idiomatic
    Sense id: en-lay_a_finger_on-en-verb-DddnSGKv Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 47 53 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 55 45 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 57 43
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see lay, a, finger, on: to finger
    Sense id: en-lay_a_finger_on-en-verb-GOvL94ew Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 47 53 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 55 45

Inflected forms

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  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "",
        "4": "fynger on (hem) to leyn",
        "t": "touch (someone) with hostile intent"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English fynger on (hem) to leyn (“touch (someone) with hostile intent”)",
      "name": "inh"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle English fynger on (hem) to leyn (“touch (someone) with hostile intent”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "lays a finger on",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
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    },
    {
      "form": "laying a finger on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laid a finger on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laid a finger on",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
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  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {
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      },
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      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "47 53",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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          "_dis": "55 45",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "57 43",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "If you lay a finger on my little brother, I'll have your guts for garters.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To merely touch."
      ],
      "id": "en-lay_a_finger_on-en-verb-DddnSGKv",
      "links": [
        [
          "touch",
          "touch"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, colloquial) To merely touch."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "47 53",
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see lay, a, finger, on: to finger"
      ],
      "id": "en-lay_a_finger_on-en-verb-GOvL94ew",
      "links": [
        [
          "lay",
          "lay#English"
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        [
          "a",
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        ],
        [
          "finger",
          "finger#English"
        ],
        [
          "on",
          "on#English"
        ]
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  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "audio": "En-au-lay a finger on.ogg",
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{
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    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English terms derived from Middle English",
    "English terms inherited from Middle English",
    "English verbs",
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    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "",
        "4": "fynger on (hem) to leyn",
        "t": "touch (someone) with hostile intent"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English fynger on (hem) to leyn (“touch (someone) with hostile intent”)",
      "name": "inh"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle English fynger on (hem) to leyn (“touch (someone) with hostile intent”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "lays a finger on",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laying a finger on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laid a finger on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laid a finger on",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "lay<,,laid> a finger on"
      },
      "expansion": "lay a finger on (third-person singular simple present lays a finger on, present participle laying a finger on, simple past and past participle laid a finger on)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
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  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
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      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "If you lay a finger on my little brother, I'll have your guts for garters.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To merely touch."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "touch",
          "touch"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, colloquial) To merely touch."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see lay, a, finger, on: to finger"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "lay",
          "lay#English"
        ],
        [
          "a",
          "a#English"
        ],
        [
          "finger",
          "finger#English"
        ],
        [
          "on",
          "on#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "audio": "En-au-lay a finger on.ogg",
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    }
  ],
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}

Download raw JSONL data for lay a finger on meaning in English (2.1kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-11-21 using wiktextract (94ba7e1 and 5dea2a6). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.