[f. FORE- pref. + FINGER.] The finger next the thumb: also called the first or index finger.

1

c. 1450.  Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 626. Forefyngure, index.

2

1579–80.  North, Plutarch (1676), 43, note. When they were conquer’d they held up their fore-finger in sign of yeelding.

3

1612.  Peacham, Drawing, II. v. Polymnia shall bee drawne as it were acting her speech with her forefinger all in white, her hair hanging loose about her shoulders.

4

1713.  Berkeley, Guardian, No. 39, ¶ 3. I discovered PREJUDICE in the figure of a woman standing in a corner, with her eyes close shut, and her fore-fingers stuck in her ears; many words in a confused order, but spoken with great emphasis, issued from her mouth.

5

1847.  Tennyson, Princ., II. 355.

                    Jewels five-words-long
That on the stretch’d forefinger of all Time
Sparkle forever.

6