five-finger

[fahyv-fing-ger]

noun

any of certain species of potentilla having leaves of five leaflets, as Potentilla canadensis.

Virginia creeper.

Origin of five-finger

before 1000; Middle English; Old English fīffingre

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

Examples from the Web for five-finger

Historical Examples of five-finger

It ran up and down about six octaves, to the tune of a five-finger exercise.
Cupid's Middleman
Edward B. Lent
To have the five-finger exercises of his irresistibility played on one.
Balloons
Elizabeth Bibesco
He may have an intuition of this, for he says quietly, "Now play me a scale and a five-finger exercise."
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 26, October, 1880
Various
The Five-finger (Asterias rubens, L.) is a very numerous species on our coast and very destructive.
Notes and Letters on the Natural History of Norfolk
Thomas Browne
"The only fortune we shall ever have will come from five-finger land," laughed Hal good-naturedly.
The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe
Amanda Minnie Douglas

British Dictionary definitions for five-finger

five-finger

noun

any of various plants having five-petalled flowers or five lobed leaves, such as cinquefoil and Virginia creeper

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