finger to the wind
finger to the wind noun: an attention to or focus on or awareness of current or prevailing trends, public opinion, or shifting circumstances.
Noun
finger to the wind (countable and uncountable, plural fingers to the wind)
- An attention to or focus on or awareness of current or prevailing trends, public opinion, or shifting circumstances.
- A crafty man-of-the-world keeps his finger to the wind.
- I do not want to hold our fingers to the wind. I want to see us make solid, substantial decisions based on facts, not based on anecdote, if you will.1982, United States, Congress, House, Committee on Science and Technology, Subcommittee on Science, Research, and Technology, Federal Commitment to Human Nutrition Research, Joint Hearing Before the...
- Synonyms:
- finger in the air
Examples of finger to the wind in a sentence
- How they choose: They hold up a finger to the winds of recent awards results2015 February 20, Stephanie Merry, “When it comes to Oscar predictions, whom can you trust?”, in Washington Post:
- This is a reform that the ancien regime, always with a finger to the wind of public opinion, spotted as an electoral nightmare and ducked.2017 May 25, “The Tory manifesto doesn't add up – and school breakfasts prove it”, in The Guardian:
Synonyms of finger to the wind
Forms of finger to the wind
| plural | fingers to the wind |
|---|---|
| alternative form | finger to the winds |
| alternative form | finger in the wind |
Questions about finger to the wind
- What does finger to the wind mean?
- Finger to the wind means an attention to or focus on or awareness of current or prevailing trends, public opinion, or shifting circumstances.
- How do you use finger to the wind in a sentence?
- How they choose: They hold up a finger to the winds of recent awards results
- What part of speech is finger to the wind?
- Finger to the wind is a noun.
- What is the plural of finger to the wind?
- The plural of finger to the wind is fingers to the wind.
Words near finger to the wind in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: finger to the wind (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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “finger to the wind.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/finger_to_the_wind. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.