middle finger
Pluralmiddle fingers
- 1The third digit of the hand, found between the forefinger and the ring finger.
The pianist strained a tendon in her left middle finger.
On most people the middle fingers are the longest fingers.
Note
Other names for this finger range across registers: long finger and mid-finger are plain alternatives, tall man is colloquial, medius is dated, and a vulgar slang name points ahead to the obscene gesture. The phrase itself is old, going back to Middle English myddel fyngir.
- 2An obscene gesture of insult, made at someone by sticking up the middle finger of one hand.
The pitcher was fined after flashing the middle finger at hecklers in the stands.
Fans booed when the striker answered their jeers with a middle finger.
Note
The usual verb is give: you give someone the middle finger, or more briefly the finger, and in the Philippines it is also called the dirty finger. Naming the gesture is far milder than making it, which is why the phrase turns up in news reports, even one about a man who argued that giving it to a state trooper was protected free speech.
- 3An insult aimed at someone, made through words or actions rather than the actual gesture.
Closing the factory the day after the subsidy arrived was a middle finger to the whole town.
Fans saw the band's farewell album as a final middle finger to their record label.
Note
The figurative insult usually takes to and often an adjective that sizes it up: a big middle finger to the other guy, a symbolic middle finger. No hand is raised; an action or an attitude says what the gesture would, which lets the phrase sit comfortably in news reports and courtrooms.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English myddel fyngir; by surface analysis, middle + finger.