Word.ws English Dictionary

gave the finger

gave the finger is the simple past of give the finger.

Meaning of give the finger

Verb

give the finger (third-person singular simple present gives the finger, present participle giving the finger, simple past gave the finger, past participle given the finger)

  1. (transitive, usually) To make an obscene gesture (towards someone) by closing the fist and extending the middle finger upwards.
    • Zelda gave Travis the finger after he cut her off in traffic.
  2. (intransitive) To make any sort of gesture extending one of the fingers above the others.

Questions about gave the finger

What is gave the finger the simple past of?
Gave the finger is the simple past of give the finger.

Words near gave the finger in the dictionary

  1. gave the axe
  2. gave the bird
  3. gave the devil his due
  4. gave the dirts
  5. gave the elbow
  6. gave the finger
  7. gave the floor
  8. gave the game away
  9. gave the lie
  10. gave the lie to
  11. gave the royal treatment

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gave the finger (page history and authors); give the finger (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: “gave the finger.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gave_the_finger. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.