/ˌkiːp jɔː ˈfɪŋɡəz ˈkɹɒst/
English idiom, everyday. To hope that things turn out well.
Draft Not yet checked by a native English speaker.
How do people use Keep your fingers crossed
?
Everyday English, fine with anyone. You can say it about yourself (“I’m keeping my fingers crossed”), ask it of others (“keep your fingers crossed for me”), or cut it down to “fingers crossed!” on its own. People sometimes make the gesture too, middle finger over index finger, but the words work without it.
Also said cross your fingers, fingers crossed, have your fingers crossed
Keep your fingers crossed
in real sentences
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Keep your fingers crossed.
Tatoeba, sentence by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
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We’ll keep our fingers crossed.
Tatoeba, sentence by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Keep your fingers crossed
come from?
The words come from the gesture, and English Wiktionary and Wikipedia both link the gesture to a small, hidden sign of the cross asking God for protection. Wikipedia presents that as a belief rather than a documented fact, and I found no source giving a first recorded use of the phrase itself.
Mistakes learners make with Keep your fingers crossed
Translating the German “Daumen drücken” as “I’ll press my thumbs for you”. Wikipedia notes that German speakers wish luck by pressing thumbs and read crossed fingers as a sign of lying, but in English it’s the fingers that get crossed.
Other English idioms like Keep your fingers crossed
Spot a mistake in Keep your fingers crossed
?
Send a correction, or a sentence you’d actually say with it. Everything is read before anything on this page changes.