fingerhole (finggerhol)

In musical instruments, as flutes, oboes, clarinets, etc., a hole in the side of the tube so placed that it may be closed by a finger of the player, that the tone produced may be modified in pitch. On elaborate instruments the holes are often so numerous and so widely dispersed that they can be closed only by an intricate mechanism of levers. fingering (fing'ger-ing), n. [ fingering , fynguryng; verbal n. of finger, v.] 1. The act of touching lightly or handling. These fingerings and suckings of every thing it [the infant] can lay hold of, these open-mouthed listenings to H. Spencer, Education, p. 129. 21. Beckoning with the finger.-3. In music: (a) The method of using the fingers upon a fingered instrument, especially so as to produce given effects in the best way. The fingering of the pianoforte has developed gradually, the thumb and the little finger being but slightly used until the middle of the eighteenth century. In fing'ring some [bards] unskill'd, but only us'd to sing IMG:content-1347.png:[blocks in formation] To have at one's finger-tips, to be practically familiar with. fingian, n. See find jan . Unto the other's harp. Drayton , Polyolbion, iv. 174. (b) An indication by figures, upon a piece of fingle-fanglet (fing gl-fang'gl), n. [A var. re- music, of the fingers to be used in its performance. For the pianoforte two systems of fingering are in use: the German or European, which marks the thumb 1, and the fingers 2, 3, 4, and 5 in order; and the American, which marks the thumb x, and the fingers 1, 2, 3, and 4 in order. 4. Delicate work done with the fingers. Not any skill'd in loops of fingering fine With this so curious network might compare. A shady, fresh, and ripply cove, Where nested was an arbor, over wove By many a summer's silent fingering . Spenser . Keats , Endymion, i. 5. A thick, loose woolen yarn used for knitting stockings, etc. [Great Britain.] finger-key (fing'ger-ke), n. A key for opening and closing electric circuits, operated by the fingers; the ordinary transmitter of the Morse telegraph system.