"put the finger on" meaning in English

See put the finger on in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: puts the finger on [present, singular, third-person], putting the finger on [participle, present], put the finger on [participle, past], put the finger on [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|<,,put>}} put the finger on (third-person singular simple present puts the finger on, present participle putting the finger on, simple past and past participle put the finger on)
  1. Synonym of finger (“to report to or identify for the authorities; to inform on”) Synonyms: finger [synonym, synonym-of]
    Sense id: en-put_the_finger_on-en-verb-Flsid1w- Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries
     
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "puts the finger on",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "putting the finger on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "put the finger on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "put the finger on",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "<,,put>"
      },
      "expansion": "put the finger on (third-person singular simple present puts the finger on, present participle putting the finger on, simple past and past participle put the finger on)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Synonym of finger (“to report to or identify for the authorities; to inform on”)"
      ],
      "id": "en-put_the_finger_on-en-verb-Flsid1w-",
      "links": [
        [
          "finger",
          "finger#English"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "extra": "to report to or identify for the authorities; to inform on",
          "tags": [
            "synonym",
            "synonym-of"
          ],
          "word": "finger"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "put the finger on"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "puts the finger on",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "putting the finger on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "put the finger on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "put the finger on",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "<,,put>"
      },
      "expansion": "put the finger on (third-person singular simple present puts the finger on, present participle putting the finger on, simple past and past participle put the finger on)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Synonym of finger (“to report to or identify for the authorities; to inform on”)"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "finger",
          "finger#English"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "extra": "to report to or identify for the authorities; to inform on",
          "tags": [
            "synonym",
            "synonym-of"
          ],
          "word": "finger"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "put the finger on"
}

Download raw JSONL data for put the finger on meaning in English (1.1kB)

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-06-07 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-06-01 using wiktextract (e79dea5 and 7f4db16). 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.