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I encountered the expression "run it contemptuously with her little finger", but am finding it difficult to understand it. Could you please let me know what it means? Here is the excerpt:
Yet what did he want? A domineering woman who bossed him? A woman who filled the house with her own friends and drove him to his bedroom—or one who was always out, neglecting the children and the house? Or one who whimpered and grumbled for more money?
He knew that the household management of their small home strained her fragile little body and mind to breaking point, but would he have had a masterful woman to run it contemptuously with her little finger?
- R. C. Sherriff, The Fortnight in September, Chapter 10
This is a novel published in 1931, which describes a fortnight in September in which an English family consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Stevens, Mary, Dick, and Ernie go on a holiday. On the day of departure, Mr. Stevens is looking across at his wife who is seated opposite to him in the carriage of a train, and is thinking about his wife and household management.
In this part, I am not sure what the underlined expression means.
I vaguely guess that "little finger" might be a metaphor to mean "with little effort", but I am not so sure...
Actually, there is another instance where "little finger" is used in this novel:
So I guess it does not necessarily have to do with a physical little finger, but I cannot grasp what it means, so I just wanted to ask you.
Yet what did he want? A domineering woman who bossed him? A woman who filled the house with her own friends and drove him to his bedroom—or one who was always out, neglecting the children and the house? Or one who whimpered and grumbled for more money?
He knew that the household management of their small home strained her fragile little body and mind to breaking point, but would he have had a masterful woman to run it contemptuously with her little finger?
- R. C. Sherriff, The Fortnight in September, Chapter 10
This is a novel published in 1931, which describes a fortnight in September in which an English family consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Stevens, Mary, Dick, and Ernie go on a holiday. On the day of departure, Mr. Stevens is looking across at his wife who is seated opposite to him in the carriage of a train, and is thinking about his wife and household management.
In this part, I am not sure what the underlined expression means.
I vaguely guess that "little finger" might be a metaphor to mean "with little effort", but I am not so sure...
Actually, there is another instance where "little finger" is used in this novel:
“Let’s go the other way. We’re walking along like a girl’s school!”
It was the first thing he had said to her, or at least, the first words of his that came intelligibly to her bewildered brain: she turned with him as if some mighty power had reached out and twisted her with its little finger.
So I guess it does not necessarily have to do with a physical little finger, but I cannot grasp what it means, so I just wanted to ask you.