Nail

subs. (Winchester College).—1.  See quots. and BIBLING UNDER NAIL.

  1866.  MANSFIELD, School-Life at Winchester College, s.v. NAIL. TO STAND UP UNDER THE NAIL. The punishment inflicted on a boy detected in a lie; he was ordered to stand up on Junior Row, just under the centre sconce, during the whole of school time. At the close of it he received a ‘Bibler.’

  1878.  H. C. ADAMS, Wykehamica, s.v. NAIL, the central sconce at the east and west ends of the school were so-called. A boy who had committed some unusually disgraceful offence, was placed there during school, previously to being ‘bibled.’

  2.  (old and Scots’).—Disposition; spirit; nature. THE AULD NAIL = original sin; A BAD NAIL = a bad disposition; A GUID NAIL = a good disposition. Also as in quot. 1819.

  1819.  J. H. VAUX, Memoirs, I., 190, s.v. NAIL. … A person of an over-reaching, imposing disposition, is called a NAIL, a dead NAIL, a NAILING rascal, a rank needle or a needle pointer [also (1823), GROSE].

  Verb. (common).—1.  To catch: like NAB (q.v.) and COP (q.v.), a general verb of action. Whence NAILING = thieving.

  1383.  CHAUCER, The Canterbury Tales, ‘The Clerkes Tale’ 1184 (SKEAT, 425). Lat noon humilitee your tonge NAILLE.

  1760.  FOOTE, The Minor, ii. Some bidders are shy, and only advance with a nod; but I NAIL them.

  1766.  GOLDSMITH, The Vicar of Wakefield, xii. When they came to talk of places in town you saw at once how I NAILED them.

  1875.  GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. NAILED. He offered me a decus and I NAILED him.

  1787.  BURNS, Death and Doctor Hornbook.

  1819.  J. H. VAUX, Memoirs, I., 190, s.v. NAIL. TO NAIL is to rob or steal; as, I NAIL’D him for (or of) his reader, I robbed him of his pocket-book; I NAIL’D the swells montra in the push, I picked the gentleman’s pocket in the crowd. TO NAIL a person, is to overreach, or take advantage of him in the course of trade or traffic.

  1823.  BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Dictionary of the Turf, etc., s.v. NAIL. … The man is NAILED who is laid hands upon.

  1836.  M. SCOTT, Tom Cringle’s Log, viii. This is my compact—if he NAILS you, you will require a friend at court, and I will stand that friend.

  1840.  R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘The Spectre of Tappington,’ I., 25. Mrs. Ogleton had already NAILED the cab.

  1850.  Lloyd’s Weekly, 3 Feb. ‘Low Lodging-houses of London.’ Now I’ll have money, NAILED or not NAILED. I can pick a woman’s pocket as easy as a man’s, though you wouldn’t think it.

  1851–61.  H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, ii., 57. At last he was bowled out in the very act of NAILING a yack. Ibid., i., 457. At Maidstone I was NAILED and had three months of it.

  1857.  G. A. LAWRENCE, Guy Livingstone, xxxiv. Get him to talk, and don’t hurry him; he’s safe to commit himself; and we’ll NAIL him at the first word.

  1877.  W. H. THOMSON, Five Years’ Penal Servitude, iv. 270. He listened to the tempter, ‘filched the ticker,’ and was NAILED almost immediately.

  1883.  R. L. STEVENSON, Treasure Island, (1886), iii., 21. Lubbers as couldn’t keep what they got, and want to NAIL what is another’s.

  1888.  BOLDREWOOD, Robbery under Arms, xxiv. I’ll give you and Bell a pair each, if you’re good girls, when we sell the horses, unless we’re NAILED at the Turon.

  1889.  C. T. CLARKSON and J. HALL RICHARDSON, Police! 322. Stealing horses … NAILING hacks.

  1892.  MILLIKEN, ’Arry Ballads, 16. It NAILED her. Ibid., 46. You haven’t quite NAILED.

  1866.  SIR S. W. BAKER, The Albert N’yanza, Great Basin of the Nile, and Explorations of the Nile Sources, ii. 163. We had lost the boats at Gondokoro, and we were now NAILED to the country for another year, should we live, which was not likely.

  2.  (American).—See quot.

  1885.  WALT WHITMAN, Slang in America, in North American Review, cxli., 434. ‘What did you do before you was a snatcher?’ Answer of 2d conductor, ‘Nail’d.’ (Translation of answer: ‘I work’d as carpenter.’)

  3.  (printers’).—To back-bite. Also TO BRASS NAIL. See NAIL-BOX.

  4.  (Winchester College).—To impress for any kind of fagging. Also, to detect.—A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant (1889).

  1808.  JAMIESON, An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, s.v. NAIL. To strike smartly, to beat, a cant use of the term.

  5.  (Scots’).—See quot.

  ON THE NAIL. phr. (old).—At once; on the spot; instanter.

  1596.  NASHE, Have with You to Saffron-Walden [Works, iii., 59]. Tell me, haue you a minde to aine thing in the Doctors Booke? speake the word, and I will help you to it VPON THE NAILE.

  1622.  FLETCHER, The Spanish Curate, v., 2. Pay it ON THE NAIL to fly my fury.

  1663.  DRYDEN, The Wild Gallant, iv. A waiter’s Place at Custom-House, that had been worth to him an 100 l. a year UPON THE NAIL.

  1733.  SWIFT, On Poetry [Works (1824), xiv., 334]. He pays his workmen ON THE NAIL.

  1798.  COLMAN (the Younger), Blue Devils, i. 1. I will make the proposal, pay down all the money that’s wanted, ON THE NAIL.

  1834.  W. H. AINSWORTH, Rookwood, II., vi. ‘A thousand pounds for his life.’ ‘UPON THE NAIL?’ asked Rust.

  1845.  B. DISRAELI, Sybil; or, The Two Nations, lviii. You shall have ten thousand pounds ON THE NAIL, and I will … teach you what is fortune.

  1859.  Punch, xxxvii., 51, 1. I must have money now. I cannot wait. The word must be—fork out UPON THE NAIL.

  1872.  M. E. BRADDON, Dead-Sea Fruit, vii. He does a bad adaptation of a French vaudeville, and gets twenty pounds down ON THE NAIL for his labour.

  1889.  Century Dictionary, s.v. NAIL (ON THE). This phrase is said to have originated in the custom of making payments, in the exchange of Bristol, England, and elsewhere on the top of a pillar called THE NAIL.

  1898.  M. E. BRADDON, Rough Justice, 38. And paid him half a sovereign for it ON THE NAIL.

  TO HIT THE NAIL (or THE RIGHT NAIL) ON THE HEAD (or TO DRIVE THE NAIL HOME), verb. phr. (colloquial).—To succeed; to come to the point. Fr. toucher au blanc (= to hit the white).

  1574.  WITHALS, Dictionary (1608), 460. YOU HIT THE NAILE ON THE HEAD, rem tenes.

  1654.  Witt’s Recreations [NARES].

  1670.  RAY, Proverbs [BOHN], 165, s.v.

  1675.  COTTON, Burlesque upon Burlesque: or, The Scoffer Scofft [Wks. (1725), 151].

  1719.  D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy, iii., 21.

  1892.  Illustrated Bits, 22 Oct., 6, 2. I have DRIVEN THE NAIL HOME.

  1896.  F. BARRETT, Harding Scandal, xiv. He must DRIVE THE NAIL HOME, and clench it on the other side, by leaving no doubt in the minds of Denise and Thrale.

  1897.  KENNARD, The Girl in the Brown Habit, ii. ‘In other words,’ said I, with a broad smile, ‘he goes a-courting against his master’s wishes and advice.’ ‘Exactly; you’ve HIT THE RIGHT NAIL ON THE HEAD.’

  TO PUT (or DRIVE) A NAIL IN ONE’S COFFIN, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To do anything that shortens life: specifically, to drink. Hence, as sub. = a drink.—GROSE (1823).

  1836.  A. FONBLANQUE, England under Seven Administrations (1837), III., 321. The infusion of a number of new Peers is a dram which, while it gives a temporary stimulus, “DRIVES NAILS INTO THE VICTIM’S COFFIN,” according to the expressive vulgar saying.

  1874.  JUSTIN MCCARTHY, Linley Rochford, ix. Every dinner eaten under such conditions is A NAIL DRIVEN INTO ONE’S COFFIN.

  1888.  Fun, 4 April, 148. Silently they walked into the Gaiety bar just as though they were going to order a couple of coffins instead of only two more NAILS.

  1897.  B. MITFORD, A Romance of the Cape Frontier, I. iii. Every moment lost is A NAIL IN HIS COFFIN.

  2.  (colloquial).—To hasten an end; to advance a business by a step.

  1884.  Illustrated London News,, 29 Nov., 526, 3. The great value of ‘The Candidate’ to the contemporary stage is that it is one more NAIL IN THE COFFIN of slow acting.

  1885.  Society, 7 Feb., 8. This dispelling of the illusion of cheapness should prove a NAIL IN THE COFFIN of Co-operative Stores.

  1897.  Daily Mail, 26 Oct., 4, 3. With the occupation of this important post another NAIL will be DRIVEN INTO THE COFFIN of Dervish tyranny.

  HARD AS NAILS, adj. phr. (colloquial).—1.  In good condition.

  1891.  The Sportsman, 25 March. Neither Rathbeal, who struck me as HARD AS NAILS not long since.

  2.  (colloquial).—Harsh; unyielding; pitiless.

  1888.  BOLDREWOOD, Robbery under Arms, xxxvii. HARD AS NAILS.

  TO NAIL TO THE COUNTER, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To expose as false: as a lie. [From putting a counterfeit coin out of circulation by fastening it with a nail to the counter of a shop.]

  1883.  O. W. HOLMES, Medical Essays, 67. A few familiar facts … have been suffered to pass current so long that it is time they should be NAILED TO THE COUNTER.

  1888.  Texas Siftings, 20 Oct. That LIE WAS NAILED a good while ago. I know it, chuckled the C. L., but it’s easy enough to pull out the NAIL.

  1888.  Denver Republican, 6 May. The La Junta Tribune has scooped all the papers in the State by NAILING THE first campaign LIE this season.

  1898.  Referee, 18 Sept., 2, 1. How often this particular falsehood has been NAILED TO THE COUNTER I don’t know; more than once I have done it myself. Still, it obtains currency.

  1900.  Daily Telegraph, 20 March, 9, 3. That truth, sooner or later, will out is an accepted maxim among many of us; and it is, therefore, with a peculiar satisfaction that I am able to announce that the champion LIE of this campaign HAS, without doubt, BEEN securely NAILED TO THE COUNTER of public judgment.

  NAKED AS MY NAIL, phr. (old colloquial).—Stark-naked.

  1605.  DRAYTON, The Moon-Calf, 510.

  1633.  HEYWOOD, The English Traveller, ii., 1. Did so Towse them and Tosse them, so Plucke them and Pull them, till hee left them as NAKED AS MY NAILE.

  OFF AT THE NAIL, phr. (Scots’).—1.  See quot.

  1808.  JAMIESON, An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, s.v. NAIL. It is conceivable, that the S. phrase … might originate in family and feudal connexion…. When one acted as an alien, relinquishing the society, or disregarding the interests of his own tribe, he might be said to GO OFF AT THE NAIL; as denoting that he in effect renounced all the ties of blood. But this is offered merely as a conjecture.

  2.  (Scots’).—Mad.

  3.  (Scots’).—Tipsy: see DRINKS and SCREWED.

  1822.  GALT, The Steam-Boat, 300. When I went up again intil the bed-room, I was what ye would call a thought OFF THE NAIL, by the which my sleep wasna just what it should have been, and dreams and visions of all sorts came hovering about my pillow, and at times I felt, as it were, the bed whirling round.

  NAILS ON THE TOES, phr. (old).—See quot.

  1602.  SHAKESPEARE, Troilus and Cressida, ii. 1. Whose wit was mouldy ere your grandsires had NAILS ON THEIR TOES.

  TO EAT ONE’S NAILS, verb. phr. (colloquial).—See quot.

  1708–10.  SWIFT, Polite Conversation, i. Indeed, Mr. Neverout, you should be cut for Simples this morning: Say a word more, and you had as good EAT YOUR NAILS.

  Also see DEAD; DOWN.