[Idiom] Idiom or Slang: I got my fingers crossed.

[Kenneth_Wai]

Hi teacher

From Mentalist Season 5:

Lisbon: How about your promise to Bertum?
​

Jane: I had my fingers crossed. ​

Does it mean he didn't ready make the promise?
The "finger crossed" means he made a fake pledge?

 

[Grumpy]

I would need to know some more of the context to be absolutely certain, but I'm pretty sure that you are correct. There are two different occasions when one might have one's fingers crossed.

1. You are not telling the truth [as in this case]. The idea is that having one's fingers crossed while you do it absolves you from the sin of untruth.
2. You are hoping very much for a successful outcome. For example: "I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I win the Lottery this week".

 

[bhaisahab]

"I got my fingers crossed" is not the same as "I had my fingers crossed" unless you are using it as a passive construction meaning that somebody crossed your fingers for you.

 

[BobK]

Hi teacher

From Mentalist Season 5:

Lisbon: How about your promise to Bertum?
​

Jane: I had my fingers crossed. ​

Does it mean he didn't rea[STRIKE]d[/STRIKE]LLy make the promise?
The "finger crossed" means he made a fake pledge?

As Grumpy said, not always. But it does here. It's a childish convention that crossing your finger 'allows' you to lie. Schoolchildren might say 'But you promised.'/'I had my fingers crossed'. Jane is being overtly childish, in a way typical of his relationship with Lisbon.

b

 

[Barb_D]

Final note: "slang" is not countable. It's just slang, not slangs.

 

[emsr2d2]

His name is Gale Bertram, not "Bertum".

 

[Kenneth_Wai]

I got it, thanks a lot all of you.