hobnails

• “Some kinds of nails, such as those used for defending the soles of coarse shoes, called hobnails, require a particular form of the head, which is made by the stroke of a die.”

  On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures

• “They struggled with the flag, its three primary colors flapping in a wind, cross-illuminated by many beams of light that illustrated the whole piece, the ripples of muscle, the rents in the metal clothing, the hobnails in the worn combat boots, the twelve-foot rifles, all in the muted, fading green of military glory, its tarnish eroded by the ages.”

  Simon & Schuster: Dead Zero

• “The legionary is also wearing an apron of leather strips featuring metal plates hanging from his belt, and caligae, leather sandals with iron hobnails.”

  Collector Coins Offer Enjoyment and Profit : Coin Collecting News

• “All that remains intact is metal: the clicking heel studs, the little bootlace eyes, and a million hobnails, tacks and studs.”

  Simon & Schuster: Wildwood

• “A jackboot is a laceless military boot that comes almost to the knee; whose sole is studded with steel hobnails and whose heel is rimmed with steel.”

  Some Thoughts on Jackbooted Thugs

• “As a boy and a man, he was a cobbler by trade, working the hobnails and lacing, but his passion was in shaping the instruments of sound whenever he could.”

  Fictionaut: Jesse's Violin

• “Like those of the lowest order of pawnbrokers, a commodity of rusty iron, a bay or two of hobnails, a few odd shoe-buckles, cashiered kail-pots, and fire-irons declared incapable of service, are quite sufficient to set him up.”

  Chronicles of the Canongate

• “The very thick leather sole was studded with metal hobnails, thus raising the marching foot too high off the ground to pick up painful gravel.”

  Simon & Schuster: Antony and Cleopatra

• “The foot had a myriad of nails and screws on the bottom — better for traction on the ice than the hobnails in the men's winter boots — and the one-legged man, while not able to man-haul, had been more than able to keep up during their transfer to Terror Camp from the abandoned ship and then in the long haul south and now east.”

  The Terror

• “Are we right in wearing the strange costumes we do, in choosing the path that pleases us athwart this rock and turf, in coming striding with unfumigated rucksacks and snow-wet hobnails into what is conceivably an extremely neat and orderly world?”

  A Modern Utopia

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