Link Centre Dictionary

nail

UK/neɪl/ US/neɪ̯ɫ/ common slang
verb (7) noun (3)

verb

1.

attach something somewhere by means of nails

  • “nail the board onto the wall”
2.

abstain from certain foods, as for religious or medical reasons

  • “Catholics sometimes fast during Lent”
Synonyms
3.

hit hard

  • “He smashed a 3-run homer”
Synonyms
4.

succeed in obtaining a position

  • “He nailed down a spot at Harvard”
Synonyms
5.

succeed at easily

  • “She sailed through her exams”
  • “You will pass with flying colors”
  • “She nailed her astrophysics course”
Synonyms
6.

locate exactly

  • “can you pinpoint the position of the enemy?”
  • “The chemists could not nail the identity of the chromosome”
Synonyms
7.

complete a pass

Synonyms

noun

1.

horny plate covering and protecting part of the dorsal surface of the digits

2.

a thin pointed piece of metal that is hammered into materials as a fastener

3.

a former unit of length for cloth equal to 1/16 of a yard

Origin

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, German and Low German Nagel, Dutch and Swedish nagel, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål negl, Norwegian Nynorsk nagl, 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).

Phrases

  • another nail in someone's coffin
  • another nail in the coffin
  • bed of nails
  • better than a poke in the eye with a rusty nail
  • bite one's nails
  • brass nail
  • bright nail
  • casing nail
  • nail it
  • nail Jell-O to a tree
  • nail Jell-O to a wall
  • nail jelly to a wall

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

See also

Parts

Part of

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.