# What does ‘cross your fingers’ mean?

To “cross your fingers” means to hope for good luck. The gesture is very old and is often linked to the sign of the cross made covertly against ill fortune; Brewer's records the folk-belief background.

## What it means

- The gesture is very old and is often linked to the sign of the cross made covertly against ill fortune; Brewer's records the folk-belief background.

## Action steps

1. Very common everyday hope.
2. Example: Cross your fingers — the results come out today.

## Sources

- [Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — Internet Archive scan](https://archive.org/details/brewers-dictionary-of-phrase-and-fable)

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