slip through someone's fingers
slip through someone's fingers verb: to elude someone in the end, despite having almost been achieved or captured.
Verb
slip through someone's fingers (third-person singular simple present slips through someone's fingers, present participle slipping through someone's fingers, simple past and past participle slipped through someone's fingers)
- To elude someone in the end, despite having almost been achieved or captured.
- "So you let the German spy slip through your fingers after all," protested Mr Carlyle warmly.1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC
Forms of slip through someone's fingers
| third-person singular present | slips through someone's fingers |
|---|---|
| present participle | slipping through someone's fingers |
| past participle | slipped through someone's fingers |
| past | slipped through someone's fingers |
Questions about slip through someone's fingers
- What does slip through someone's fingers mean?
- Slip through someone's fingers means to elude someone in the end, despite having almost been achieved or captured.
- What part of speech is slip through someone's fingers?
- Slip through someone's fingers is a verb.
- What is the past tense of slip through someone's fingers?
- The past tense of slip through someone's fingers is slipped through someone's fingers.
Words near slip through someone's fingers in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: slip through someone's fingers (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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