finger bowl

noun

a small bowl to hold water for rinsing the fingers at table.

Origin of finger bowl

First recorded in 1855–60

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for finger bowl

Historical Examples of finger bowl

Judith finished dabbling her fingers in the finger-bowl, and wiped them daintily.
Miss Pat at School
Pemberton Ginther
Every morning I perch on the plate or finger-bowl and eat my orange.
Birds and Nature Vol. 9 No. 1 [January 1901]
Various
It should be laid on the table, at the right of the finger-bowl.
Book of Etiquette, Volume 2
Lillian Eichler Watson
Archie flicked the ash from his cigarette into the finger-bowl.
Indiscretions of Archie
P. G. Wodehouse
She held it to the very last, then dropped it into her finger-bowl and rose.
Max
Katherine Cecil Thurston

British Dictionary definitions for finger bowl

finger bowl

noun

a small bowl filled with water for rinsing the fingers at the table after a meal

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012