Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A short nail with a thick head used to protect the soles of shoes or boots.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A short thick nail with a pointed tang and a large head, used for nailing the soles of heavy boots and shoes.
- n. A clownish person: used in contempt.
- To furnish or fasten with hobnails.
- To tread roughly upon, as with heavy hobnailed shoes.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A short, sharp-pointed, large-headed nail, -- used in shoeing horses and for studding the soles of heavy shoes.
- n. A clownish person; a rustic.
WordNet 3.0
- v. supply with hobnails
- n. a short nail with a thick head; used to protect the soles of boots
Etymologies
- hob1, peg, projection (obsolete) + nail.
Examples
“If all the generals put away their hobnail boots, war would forever be put away.”
“All the beautiful little hints of intrigue were stomped down with movie-length hobnail boots.”
MIND MELD: SciFi TV Shows That Deserve A Remake (with Videos)
“This did not work out the way I thought it was going to, as a matter of fact the dark thing only stepped on my chest a couple of times with its hobnail feet and then rolled me back into the opposite direction, with very little effort I might add.”
“But while Heat raised an eyebrow, Holy Moly – like Popbitch – applied a hobnail boot.”
The Guardian: Jamie East: I didn't sell half of Holy Moly to Endemol without TV in mind
“This legislation stamps on all that with a clunking, hobnail boot." ...”
Labour's restrictions on visitors diminish the cultural life of the nation
“The filibuster will be there long after I've been thrown in the hole, because it's like a big old hobnail-boot ass-kicking machine.”
“Well, in so doing they present to the world their backsides to which the world should now administer its well-placed hobnail boot.”
“OK OK, I'll get a pair of hobnail boots and practice goose-stepping and idol-worshipping, so that I can get along better with the Obama people.”
“* PB taiks a inglish brekfuss tee no mlik wib hobnail bikky *”
i flossez - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
“I know that, were I to read a fic, the impulse would be overwhelming to land all over the writer with hobnail boots, “No, this character would NEVER say that.””
BOOK VIEW CAFE BLOG » Bad readers, good readers, and fanfiction
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hobnail’.
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Gapeseeds and Muckworms - Compound Derogatives
A list of compound derogatory names such as gapeseed, muckworm and lickspittle. Your one-word contributions to this list are welcome.
See sionnach's list derogatory terms I should use ...gapeseed, muckworm, lickspittle, makeweight, bootlicker, backscratcher, apple-polisher, backslapper, brownnoser, rakeshame, yesman, freeloader and 237 more...
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Hobs
hob, hobby, hobbyhorse, hobnob, hobanob, hob and nob, Hob Collingwood, hobble, Calvin and Hobbes, hobbledygee, Hobby-lanthorn, hobbit and 41 more...
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Farriery
"The art of shoeing horses; also, the art of treating the diseases of horses, now technically called veterinary surgery."
--Century Dictionaryfarriery, crapaudine, grease, interference, cloy, buttress, grape, grapes, farrier, horseshoe, fullering, calk and 26 more...
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Nails
Any word or phrase with the letters n-a-i-l (in that order). Extra points for anything snaily.
nail, snail, nails, snails, thumbnail, fingernail, toenail, doornail, cut nail, wire nail, bullethead nail, finish nail and 35 more...
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A Time of Gifts
lambent, gonfalon, ait, eyrie, haberdashery, belfry, capstan, spinney, barbican, hobnail, wharf, waterlogged and 64 more...
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Send in the clowns
Bozo, Feste, Ronald McDonald, Krusty, Touchstone, Yorick, The Gravediggers, Clown, Dromio of Syracuse, Dromio of Ephesus, Puck, clown fish and 64 more...
hernesheir Hey bilby: some other uninspiring visual examples of bygone American glassware can be perused at depression glass, milk glass and vaseline glass. The white hobnail glass shown here isn't to my liking either. So-called Vaseline glass contains Uranium, which causes it to fluoresce under ultraviolet light. Nov 3, 2011
erinmckean The houses are now unshod. Thanks! Nov 3, 2011
bilby BTW the warty ceramics is fugly. Nov 1, 2011
bilby My house has footings. Nov 1, 2011
hernesheir Yet, one may readily purchase house slippers at any department store. Nov 1, 2011
Stephen Ferg I think that
"A short, sharp-pointed, large-headed nail, -- used in shoeing houses and for studding the soles of heavy shoes."
should probably be
"A short, sharp-pointed, large-headed nail, -- used in shoeing horses and for studding the soles of heavy shoes."
One shoes HORSES, not HOUSES. Nov 1, 2011