ˈfinger-tip
The tip of a finger; used attrib. to indicate length (of a garment) or sensitivity (of an object) to pressure, and spec. in Archæol. designating ornamentation made with the tips of the fingers; hence finger-tipping vbl. n. Phr. to the (or one's) finger-tips = through one's whole body, ‘from top to toe’, throughout; at one's finger(s') tips = ‘at one's finger-ends’.
| 1842 Tennyson Sir Launcelot & Q. Guinevere, As she sway'd The rein with dainty finger-tips. 1870 Harper's Mag. Nov. 864/1 The best learning that the world affords, my Bert has at his fingers' tips. 1883 E. Pennell-Elmhirst Cream Leicestersh. 314 There was a bite at one's fingertips. 1886 Kipling Departm. Ditties 45, I redden to my finger-tips. 1905 Strand Mag. June 702/1 He has at his finger-tips every stroke in the game. 1907 Daily Chron. 21 Jan. 3/5 Alive with science to the finger tips. 1928 Crawford & Keiller Wessex fr. Air 10 If it was constructed, as he concludes, by the finger-tip people. Ibid. 200 The fragment of a typical finger-tip urn. 1929 F. Hackett Henry VIII viii. 417 He was a magnate to his finger-tips. 1929 V. G. Childe Danube in Prehist. 364 Bicǫnical or open urns with finger-tip ornament. 1935 Times 28 Nov. 19/5 Finger-tip coat and frock. 1937 Times 13 Apr. p. xxii/4 A ‘finger-tip’ adjustment for setting the brake shoes to the correct clearance. 1937 Oxoniensia II. 28 Rough grey-brown smoky ware with finger-tipping on the shoulder. 1956 A. H. Compton Atomic Quest 54 He had at his fingertips the most recent experimental values of the constants. 1959 Observer 7 June 31/1 A great bout of finger-tip handling right across the Australian goalmouth. 1960 News Chron. 19 Feb. 8/7 The fingertip light switch. 1961 Antiquaries Jrnl. XLI. 36 Two shoulder sherds..with stick impression or impressed finger-tip decoration. 1961 J. McCabe Mr. Laurel & Mr. Hardy (1962) iii. 75 He was an artist to his fingertips once he got going. |