finger-pointing

/ˈfɪŋɡə pɔɪntɪŋ/ (bre, ipa) · /ˈfɪŋɡər pɔɪntɪŋ/ (ame, ipa) · /ˈfiŋ-gər-ˌpȯin-tiŋ/ (ame, mw)

finger-pointing — noun

1. the habit of publicly putting the blame on other people after a failure or mista

1.名詞C1
釋義

the habit of publicly putting the blame on other people after a failure or mistake, often without taking any responsibility yourself.

例句

After the project missed its deadline, there was a lot of finger-pointing between the two teams.

collocation: finger-pointing between [parties]

Camille told her staff to stop the finger-pointing and focus on fixing the broken website.

object of 'stop'; the typical management response

同義詞
  • blame game

    very informal; emphasises the back-and-forth nature, like a game with no winner

  • scapegoating

    more serious; focuses on unfairly choosing one person or group to carry all the blame

  • recrimination

    formal; mutual accusations between people who blame each other

反義詞

文法句型

a round of finger-pointing

finger-pointing between [parties]

finger-pointing over [issue]

用法筆記

Almost always uncountable and used with a negative tone — speakers use it to criticise the blaming behaviour, not to describe a neutral process. Typical modifiers are 'a lot of', 'constant', 'mutual', and 'endless'.

常見錯誤

❌There were many finger-pointings after the failure.
✅There was a lot of finger-pointing after the failure.
💡finger-pointing is uncountable, so use 'a lot of' or 'much', not a plural.