- Home
- Idioms
- burn fingers
burn fingers
burn your fingers
also get (your fingers) burned to have a bad result from something, esp. to lose money Many investors burned their fingers on those stocks. The museum has gotten burned on several paintings purchased recently that have turned out to be fakes.
burn your fingers
also have/get your fingers burned/burnt to suffer unpleasant results of an action, especially loss of money, so you are not keen to try the same thing again Many investors burn their fingers when they are tempted by get-rich-quick schemes. Several art dealers got their fingers burned on old master paintings that later turned out to be fakes.