> as lemmas

1574 A. Golding tr. J. Calvin Serm. on Job xvi. 311/1 Although he know not precisely why he is afflicted, nor be able to lay his finger vpon it [Fr. mettre le doigt dessus].

1600 W. Perkins Salue for Sicke Man in Golden Chaine 793 Wee haue proceeded thus farre, and haue as it were laid our finger vpon the right and proper cause of our sicknes.

1688 R. L'Estrange Brief Hist. Times II. i. 6 Sr. William Jones was as good at Hitting a Blot in an Evidence, and laying his Finger upon the Pinch of the Question, as any Man Living.

1796 Parl. Reg. 1781–96 XLIII. 11 If he was to put his finger on the most disgraceful of the dark catalogue of defects in the conduct of Ministers during the present war, he could not find any more conspicuous than those.

1836 J. Keble Serm. (1848) viii. Postscr. 376 To select for himself a certain number of divine truths out of the great body of the Scriptures, on which he may lay his finger and say; This, and this alone, is the Gospel.

1846 Morning Post 27 Mar. 2/5 In all the wars of the last two hundred years..it was impossible to put the finger on one of them which they could suppose might have been prevented.

1889 C. Smith Repentance Paul Wentworth III. 236 Any definite complaint on which a physician could have put his finger.

1894 A. Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes 120 You lay your finger upon the one point which we [etc.].

1913 N.Y. Times 31 Aug. (Mag.) 12/1 It is difficult to put the finger on any one costume that presents something startlingly novel.

1961 F. G. Cassidy Jamaica Talk i. 7 He [sc. Sloane] lays his finger on the two most prominent features of these trees—the fruits..and the thorns.

1988 G. Patterson Burning your Own i. vii. 83 There was something about the dinette that struck him as peculiar, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

2011 Z. Strachan Ever fallen in Love 151 I just wondered if you could put your finger on the moments you made the choices that mattered.