nail
Plural: nails
Noun
- horny plate covering and protecting part of the dorsal surface of the digits
- a thin pointed piece of metal that is hammered into materials as a fastener
- a former unit of length for cloth equal to 1/16 of a yard
- The thin, horny plate at the ends of fingers and toes on humans and some other animals.
- The basal thickened portion of the anterior wings of certain hemiptera.
- The terminal horny plate on the beak of ducks, and other allied birds.
- The claw of a bird or other animal.
- A spike-shaped metal fastener used for joining wood or similar materials. The nail is generally driven through two or more layers of material by means of impacts from a hammer or other device. It is then held in place by friction.
- A round pedestal on which merchants once carried out their business, such as the four nails outside The Exchange, Bristol.
- An archaic English unit of length equivalent to ¹⁄₂₀ of an ell or ¹⁄₁₆ of a yard (2+¹⁄₄ inches or 5.715 cm).
Verb
Verb Forms: nailed, nailing, nails
- To fasten securely with a nail; to succeed brilliantly.
- attach something somewhere by means of nails
- "nail the board onto the wall"
- take into custody
- hit hard
- succeed in obtaining a position
- "He nailed down a spot at Harvard"
- succeed at easily
- "She nailed her astrophysics course"
- locate exactly
- "The chemists could not nail the identity of the chromosome"
- complete a pass
- To fix (an object) to another object using a nail.
- To drive a nail.
- To stud or boss with nails, or as if with nails.
- To catch.
- To expose as a sham.
- To accomplish (a task) completely and successfully.
- To hit (a target) effectively with some weapon.
- Of a male, to engage in sexual intercourse with.
- To spike, as a cannon.
- To nail down: to make certain, or confirm.
- To steal.
Examples
- He managed to nail a triple-word score with his last few tiles.
- He nailed the placard to the post.
- He used the ax head for nailing.
- I really nailed that test.
- When I'm nervous I bite my nails.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English nail, nayl, Old English næġl, from Proto-West Germanic *nagl, from Proto-Germanic *naglaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃nogʰ- (“nail”).
Cognates
Compare North Frisian Nail (“nail”), Saterland Frisian Nail (“nail”), West Frisian neil, Low German Nagel, Dutch nagel, German Nagel, Danish negl, Swedish nagel, Finnish naula (“nail”), Estonian nael (“nail”), (compare Irish ionga, Latin unguis, Albanian nyell (“ankle, hard part of a limb”), Lithuanian nagas, Russian нога́ (nogá, “foot, leg”), но́готь (nógotʹ, “nail”), Ancient Greek ὄνυξ (ónux), Persian ناخن (nâxon), Sanskrit नख (nakhá).
Synonyms
ace, apprehend, arrest, blast, boom, breeze through, collar, complete, cop, nab, nail down, pass with flying colors, peg, pick up, pinpoint, sail through, smash, sweep through, Any of Thesaurus:copulate + "with", Formal terms, Informal and slang terms, ball, bang, bauf, be with, bed, beep, begripe, boff, boink, bone, bonk, boom-boom, capture, clinch, coit, coitize, dick, diddle, dig out, dight, do, doink, drill, eff, enjoy, expletive deleted, fang, feague, feck, fill, fix, frack, frak, frick, frig, fuck, fulfill, fullbring, get, get into someone's pants, get over on, get up in, give someone one, give someone the time, go in unto, go to bed with, go with, grasp, gripe, hammer, have, have one's way with, have one's wicked way with, hit, hump, jape, jump, jump someone's bones, knob, knock, knock off, know, know someone in the biblical sense, lay, lay hold of, lie by, lie with, lock down, love, love up, make, mount, nail, nick, occupy, penetrate, pin down, plough, plug, poke, pork, pound, prig, pump, rail, ream, rock, roger, root, run through, rut, sard, schlong, screw, season, seduce, see to, seize, service, shaft, shag, shelve, slay, sleep with, slip it to, smush, stallionize, swive, take, take hold, tap, tup, wap
Antonyms
Scrabble Score: 4
nail: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordnail: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
nail: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary