finger bowl

plural finger bowls · alternative fingerbowl · alternative finger-bowl

1. A small bowl of warm water placed at each seat at a formal dinner for the guests to rinse their fingers with between courses.

   1 more example

   In the cut-glass age, when young ladies had persuaded young men with long, curly mustaches to marry them, they sat down several months afterward and wrote thank-you notes for all sorts of cut-glass presents—punch bowls, finger-bowls, dinner-glasses, wine-glasses, ice-cream dishes, bonbon dishes, decanters, and vases[…]

   1920, F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Cut-Glass Bowl”, in Scribner's Magazine

   Synonyms: finger glass