have a finger in the pie

To be involved in a particular situation, especially when said involvement is seen as meddling. Mom is now calling me every hour, and I'm sure you had a finger in the pie—what exactly did you tell her? A: "You knew he was planning to break up with me, didn't you? You had a finger in the pie!" B: "No, I didn't, I swear!" I got yelled at by the boss today, and I bet that miserable Colleen had a finger in the pie.

See also: finger, have, pie

have a/(one's) finger in the pie

To be involved in a situation, often in a meddlesome way. Mom is now calling me every hour, and I'm sure you had a finger in the pie—what exactly did you tell her? A: "You knew he was planning to break up with me, didn't you? You had a finger in the pie!" B: "No, I didn't, I swear!" I got yelled at by the boss today, and I bet that miserable Colleen had her finger in the pie.

See also: finger, have, pie

have a finger in the pie

and have one's finger in the pie

Fig. to have a role in something; to be involved in something. (See also have one's finger in too many pies) Tess wants to have a finger in the pie. She doesn't think we can do it by ourselves. Sally always wants to have a finger in the pie.

See also: finger, have, pie

have a finger in the pie

be involved in a matter, especially in an annoyingly interfering way.

See also: finger, have, pie

finger in every pie, to have a

To be involved in numerous activities, usually in the sense of meddling. This metaphor from finger-licking in the kitchen dates from the sixteenth century. Shakespeare used it in HenryVIII (1.1), where the Duke of Buckingham complains of Cardinal Wolsey, “No man’s pie is freed from his ambitious finger.”