put one's finger on

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Also, lay one's finger on.

Identify, as in I can't put my finger on the man in that photo. [Late 1800s]

See lay a finger on.

QUIZ

WILL YOU SAIL OR STUMBLE ON THESE GRAMMAR QUESTIONS?

Smoothly step over to these common grammar mistakes that trip many people up. Good luck!

Question 1 of 7

Fill in the blank: I can’t figure out _____ gave me this gift.

Words nearby put one's finger on

To put it rather uncharitably, the USPHS practiced a major dental experiment on a city full of unconsenting subjects.
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Added to drinking water at concentrations of around one part per million, fluoride ions stick to dental plaque.
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In his view, a writer has only one duty: to be present in his books.
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Yet this, in the end, is a book from which one emerges sad, gloomy, disenchanted, at least if we agree to take it seriously.
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Just the hard-on before you shoot unarmed members of the public.
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Practise gliding in the form of inflection, or slide, from one extreme of pitch to another.
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He alludes to it as one of their evil customs and used by them to produce insensibility.
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There was a rumor that Alessandro and his father had both died; but no one knew anything certainly.
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He was voluble in his declarations that they would “put the screws” to Ollie on the charge of perjury.
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Truth is a torch, but one of enormous size; so that we slink past it in rather a blinking fashion for fear it should burn us.
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