Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Fingerprint

Fingerprint , noun

[Finger + print.]

Fingerprints left by persons who have committed crimes are considered as reliable physical evidence linking an individual with a crime, because each person's fingerprints are distinctively different from those of others, allowing identification of a person with high confidence.

1.
an impression of the pattern of ridges on the skin of the last joint of a person's finger, left on a surface after a person has touched the surface.
2.
a fingerprint{1} made intentionally in ink on a paper form for the purpose of identification of the individual.
3.
any distinctive pattern of characteristics or properties of an object which can serve to identify that object; as, the distinctive fingerprint of eugenol in the mass spectrum allowed easy recognition of its presence in the sample.
4.
a smudge made by a (dirty) finger.

fingerprint , transitive verb

to take an impression of the fingerprints of (a person); as, to fingerprint applicants for a gun permit.