finger-wagging
finger-wagging is the present participle and gerund of finger-wag.
Noun
finger-wagging (countable and uncountable, plural finger-waggings)
Meaning of finger-wag
Verb
finger-wag (third-person singular simple present finger-wags, present participle finger-wagging, simple past and past participle finger-wagged)
- To move the index finger horizontally back and forth, as to say no or reject something.
- To move the index finger repeatedly up and down, as to threaten or reprimand someone.
- For these and other reasons, I disagree with reecent critiques of the film, such as Matt Novak's finger-wagging thinkpiece, "Idiocracy Is a Cruel Movie and You Should Be Ashamed for Liking It." (2014)2018, Nicole Seymour, Bad Environmentalism, page 246
Forms of finger-wagging
| plural | finger-waggings |
|---|
Origin of finger-wagging
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
From finger + wagging.
Questions about finger-wagging
- What does finger-wagging mean?
- Finger-wagging means used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see finger, wagging.
- What is finger-wagging the present participle and gerund of?
- Finger-wagging is the present participle and gerund of finger-wag.
- What part of speech is finger-wagging?
- Finger-wagging is a noun.
- What is the plural of finger-wagging?
- The plural of finger-wagging is finger-waggings.
Words near finger-wagging in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: finger-wagging (page history and authors); finger-wag (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “finger-wagging.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/finger-wagging. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.