to count on one hand
4
4.9
- idiom
- Informal
:
contar con los dedos de una mano
- And I can count on one hand the friends that he truly would spend time with.
- count on one hand the number
- count on one hand how many
- count on one hand the times
But, but I would say I could probably count on one hand the number of scripts that have made me cry.
- But, but I would say I could probably count on one hand the number of scripts that have made me cry.
- Friends that I've met through this industry that I can count on one hand.
- And I, I could honestly say I could count on one hand the number that were truly born to be day traders.
- So there there's I can count on one hand the amount of times that like I felt like smut was done really well.
- I honestly can count on one hand the number of people who I met whose money we managed, whose goal was to make a lot of money.
Examples
-
I can count on one hand how many female directors we had.
-
I can count them on one hand.
Blog text (11) -
But I can count on one hand the number of breaks I take every year.
-
But, but I would say I could probably count on one hand the number of scripts that have made me cry.
-
I can probably count on one hand the senators and representatives who show an understanding of public service.
Blog text (25) -
Seriously, I can count on one hand the number of times I've done that.
Blog text (14) -
I can count on one hand the number of power outages during the first 20 years of my life.
Blog text (17) -
I worked for 4 years in the poorest pharmacy in our area, and I can count on one hand the times I have been treated like a human being.
Blog text (25) -
I don't always find it, but I can count on one hand the books I haven't finished because I found them unreadable.
Blog text (17) -
I can count on one hand the number of close friends I have.
Synonyms
1
6.1
Very few people or things you can count on one hand
How Few
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to have a very small number' is directly derivable from the literal idea of counting items using the fingers of one hand (i.e., a very small countable number). This physical, compositional image is common cross-linguistically and follows ordinary counting logic, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents should be able to infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Count on one hand comes from the simple picture of using your hand to count fingers: you can only count up to five on one hand. So, if you can count on one hand the things, it means there are 'very few' of them.