Word.ws English Dictionary

sticky fingers

sticky fingers noun: an inclination to steal. Also the third-person singular simple present indicative of sticky finger.

Noun

sticky fingers pl (plural only)

  1. (idiomatic, plural, plural-only) An inclination to steal.
    • You'd better lock up your belongings before handing your keys to a valet; some of them have sticky fingers.
    • ‘She was great,’ Bennie said. ‘I was crazy about her. But it turned out she had sticky fingers.’ He glanced at Alex. ‘She stole things.’2010, Jennifer Egan, “Pure Language”, in A Visit from the Goon Squad
  2. (idiomatic, plural, plural-only) Petty thieves.
    • There are too many sticky fingers around for me to leave my purse unattended.

Also used as

sticky fingers is also the third-person singular simple present indicative of sticky finger.

Words formed from sticky fingers

Questions about sticky fingers

What does sticky fingers mean?
Sticky fingers means an inclination to steal.
What part of speech is sticky fingers?
Sticky fingers is a noun.

Words near sticky fingers in the dictionary

  1. sticky end
  2. sticky ends
  3. sticky finger
  4. sticky fingered
  5. sticky fingering
  6. sticky fingers
  7. sticky foam
  8. sticky foams
  9. sticky keys
  10. sticky monkey-flower
  11. sticky note

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sticky 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-sticky fingers.ogg.

Cite this entry: “sticky fingers.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sticky_fingers. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.