at one's fingertips
at (one's) fingertips
1. Physically within one's reach or in one's hand. I always keep a glass of water at my fingertips when I sleep, because I hate waking up thirsty.
2. Easily or conveniently accessed, accomplished, or achieved. With our new 24-hour phone service, you have quality customer care at your fingertips. Because the Internet is so easy to access these days, we have every resource imaginable at our fingertips!
See also: fingertip
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
at one's fingertips
Ready at hand, immediately available. This idiom is used both literally, as in This new dashboard design keeps all the important controls at the driver's fingertips, and figuratively, as in Tom was so familiar with the proposal that he had all the details at his fingertips. [Second half of 1800s]
See also: fingertip
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
at one's fingertips
Ready, instantly available; at one’s command. The term refers to both cognizance and competence—that is, it can mean either knowledge or the ability to carry out a task. Presumably it is based on something being as close at hand and familiar as one’s own fingers. Its roots may lie in an ancient Roman proverb, “To know as well as one’s fingers and toes,” which in English became one’s fingers’ ends (in the proverb collections of John Heywood, John Ray, and others). Fingertips appears to have originated in the United States in the nineteenth century.
See also: fingertip
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- at (one's) fingertips
- at fingertips
- at your fingertips
- at the end of (one's) fingertips
- at doorstep
- at (one's) doorstep
- at (one's) expense
- at expense
- at somebody's expense
- at someone's expense