Word.ws English Dictionary

puts the finger on

puts the finger on is the third-person singular simple present indicative of put the finger on.

Meaning of put the finger on

Verb

put the finger on (third-person singular simple present puts the finger on, present participle putting the finger on, simple past and past participle put the finger on)

  1. (idiomatic) Synonym of finger (“to report to or identify for the authorities; to inform on”)
    • "And for God's sake watch out. And I mean it. The Big Man'll get you if he possibly can and a police escort to the train would only put the finger on you. Take a cab and keep out of sight."1954, Ian Fleming, “True or False?”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 0
    Synonyms:
    finger

Questions about puts the finger on

What is puts the finger on the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Puts the finger on is the third-person singular simple present indicative of put the finger on.

Words near puts the finger on in the dictionary

  1. puts the clock forward
  2. puts the clocks back
  3. puts the cork back in the bottle
  4. puts the dead wood on
  5. puts the fear of God into
  6. puts the finger on
  7. puts the frighteners on someone
  8. puts the genie back in the bottle
  9. puts the hammer down
  10. puts the heat on
  11. puts the herd on someone

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: puts the finger on (page history and authors); put the finger on (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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