Brewer's: Wet Finger

(With a), easily, directly. “D'un tour de main. ”The allusion is to the old custom of spinning, in which the spinner constantly wetted the fore-finger with the mouth.

“I can bring myself round with a wet finger.” —SirW.Scott: Redgauntlet, chap. xxiii. (and in many other places).

“The spirit being grieved and provoked. ... will not return again with a wet finger.” —Gouge: Whole Armour of God, p. 458 (1616).

I can find One with a wet finger that is stark blind.

Trial of Love and Fortune (1598). Flores. “Canst thou bring me thither? Peasant. With a wet finger.”

Wisdom of Dr. Dodypoll (1600).

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