get one's fingers burnt
get one's fingers burnt verb: to suffer relatively minor, adversive, and unexpected harm.
Verb
get one's fingers burnt (third-person singular simple present gets one's fingers burnt, present participle getting one's fingers burnt, simple past got one's fingers burnt, past participle (UK) got one's fingers burnt or (US) gotten one's fingers burnt)
- To suffer relatively minor, adversive, and unexpected harm.
- He got his fingers burnt in that stock market scam, but at least he didn't lose his house.
- He developed a special interest in coconut cultivation after witnessing the success of some farmers who made huge money only to get his fingers burnt.2015 August 25, “Anwar Raja, the farmer, got his fingers burnt”, in The Hindu, retrieved 20 Nov 2018
Forms of get one's fingers burnt
| third-person singular present | gets one's fingers burnt |
|---|---|
| present participle | getting one's fingers burnt |
| past | got one's fingers burnt |
| past participle UK | got one's fingers burnt |
| past participle US | gotten one's fingers burnt |
Questions about get one's fingers burnt
- What does get one's fingers burnt mean?
- Get one's fingers burnt means to suffer relatively minor, adversive, and unexpected harm.
- What part of speech is get one's fingers burnt?
- Get one's fingers burnt is a verb.
- What is the past tense of get one's fingers burnt?
- The past tense of get one's fingers burnt is got one's fingers burnt.
Words near get one's fingers burnt in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: get one's fingers burnt (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-get one's fingers burnt.ogg.
Cite this entry: “get one's fingers burnt.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/get_one%27s_fingers_burnt. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.