fingering

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The technique used in playing a musical instrument with the fingers.
2. n. The indication on a musical score of which fingers are to be used in playing.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of touching lightly or handling.
2. n. Beckoning with the finger.
3. n. In music: The method of using the fingers upon a fingered instrument, especially so as to produce given effects in the best way. The fingering of the pianoforte has developed gradually, the thumb and the little finger being but slightly used until the middle of the eighteenth century.
4. n. An indication by figures, upon a piece of music, of the fingers to be used in its performance. For the pianoforte two systems of fingering are in use: the German or European, which marks the thumb 1, and the fingers 2, 3, 4, and 5 in order; and the American, which marks the thumb x, and the fingers 1, 2, 3, and 4 in order.
5. n. Delicate work done with the fingers.
6. n. A thick, loose woolen yarn used for knitting stockings, etc.

Wiktionary

1. n. music (uncountable) The act of using one's fingers in the playing of a musical instrument.
2. n. music (countable) A specific method of using the fingers to play an instrument.
3. n. uncountable The act of using the fingers to penetrate and sexually stimulate one's own or another person's vagina or anus.
4. v. present participle of finger.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act or process of handling or touching with the fingers.
2. n. The manner of using the fingers in playing or striking the keys of an instrument of music; movement or management of the fingers in playing on a musical instrument, in typewriting, etc.
3. n. The marking of the notes of a piece of music to guide or regulate the action or use of the fingers.
4. n. Delicate work made with the fingers.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the placement of the fingers for playing different notes (or sequences of notes) on a musical instrument
2. n. touching something with the fingers