hangnail

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“
Every time you pass stinky gas from a bad pot of chili or have a hangnail, the press is going to know about it.

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Definitions (4)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun A small piece of dead skin at the side or the base of a fingernail that is partly detached from the rest of the skin.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • The girl Rose hung about with Diamond because Tuly encouraged Rose's mother the witch to visit, consulting her every time Diamond had a hangnail, and telling her more than she or anyone ought to know about Golden's household. —  F ;SF; - vol 097 issue 04-05 - October-November 1999
  • On a completely subjective standard, depending on the patient, you might end up giving morphine for a hangnail and aspirin for first-degree burns. —  AnalogSFF,November2007
  • The Main Man is tryin' to keep going on potato chips and two hours sleep, and I was kinda hoping he'd have a chance to fall on his face and die for a couple hours when he got back--that is, if there isn't an emergency hangnail or something to keep him up all night. —  Phule 01 - Phules Company
  • And, dammit, he kept referring to us as "Mars-rationalized humans" instead of Marsrats, which for some reason grates on the ear like a hangnail on a blackboard. —  Analog December, 1974
  • An unnerving side effect of his counseling sessions, however, was his tendency to play amateur psychologist to anyone who confessed to having so much as a hangnail. —  Muller, Marcia - [15] Till the Butchers cut him down.htm
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This word has been looked up 79 times.

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Alteration of agnail (influenced by hang).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Regarded as hang + nail, which suits the sense given; but the word is historically an accommodation of angnail (Anglo-Saxon angnægl), corruptly agnail: see agnail.
 

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/ˈhæŋneɪl/
by American Heritage

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