nail

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (2)  · 
“
The nail, barely pushed into the mortar, would hardly support the weight of a dozen yards of twine Perhaps the nail was there by chance, and Grio had naught to do with it.

View all »
Definitions (67)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (16)

  1. noun A slim, pointed piece of metal hammered into material as a fastener.
  2. noun A fingernail or toenail.
  3. noun A claw or talon.
13 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (39)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (10)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • The object which John Acre lifted off the nail was a poncho, but it also had an additional hood of cloth sewn in the middle. —  012 - The Man Who Shook The Earth
  • Squeeze a finger-nail, and if no blood appears beneath it, safura is the cause of the bloodlessness. —  The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume II, 1869-1873
  • I know that the nail is already in the proverbial coffin, but I just can't let this one slide. —  Buckeye State Blog - Comments
  • Another nail is the Tory fondness for an English Parliament. —  Labourhome
  • As Sam Harris said: '[N] early every person who has ever trimmed a hammer or swung a nail has been a devout member of one or another religious culture. —  Shiraz Socialist
More examples »
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 104 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

fingernail ·  knife ·  claw ·  tooth ·  bolt ·  pin ·  bead ·  needle ·  stick ·  hook ·  rod ·  finger

Used in the same contextWord Family

nail:   nails ·  nailing ·  nailed
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old English nægl, fingernail, toenail; see nogh- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English also nayle; from Middle English naile, nayle, neile, from Anglo-Saxon nægel (in inflection nægl-), a nail of the finger or toe, a nail of metal, = Old Saxon nagal = OFries. neil, nil = Dutch nagel = Middle Low German Low German nagel = Old High German nagal, Middle High German G. nagel, a nail of the finger or toe, a nail of metal, =Icelandic nagl = Swedish nagel = Danish negl, a nail of the finger or toe, = Icelandic nagli = Swedish nagel = Danish nagle = Gothic (Moesogothic) *nagls (in deriv. verb ga-nagljan, fasten with nails), a nail of metal; cf. Old Bulgarian nogŭtĭ = Servian nokat = Bohemian nehet = Polish nogiec = Russian nogotĭ = Lithuanian nagas, a nail, claw. = Sanskrit nakha, a nail of the finger or toe. Not related, or related only remotely, by a doubtful transposition, with Old Irish inga, Irish ionga = Latin unguis = Greek όνυξ, (ὀνυχ -), a nail, claw (see ungulate, onyx). The sense of ‘a nail of metal’ occurs early (in Gothic (Moesogothic), etc.), but it is derived from that of a ‘nail’ or ‘claw.’
  2. from Middle English nailen, naylen, from Anglo-Saxon næglian = Old Saxon neglian = D. Middle Low German nagelen = Old High German nagalen, Middle High German nagelen, German nageln = Swedish nagla = Danish nagle = Gothic (Moesogothic) ga-nagljan, fasten with nails; from the noun.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/neɪl/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about twice a week.

Recently looked up

fate · second · melting · restrain · anon

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Der dicke Dachdecker deckte dir dein Dach, drum dank dem dicken Dachdecker, dass der dicke Dachdecker dir dein Dach deckte. · weitläufig · und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute · redescheu · selbstverständlich