Note: The different sorts of nails are named either from the use to which they are applied, from their shape, from their size, or from some other characteristic, as shingle, floor, ship-carpenters', and horseshoe nails, roseheads, diamonds, fourpenny, tenpenny (see Penny), chiselpointed, cut, wrought, or wire nails, etc.
4. A measure of length, being two inches and a quarter, or the sixteenth of a yard. Nail ball (Ordnance), a round projectile with an iron bolt protruding to prevent it from turning in the gun. — Nail plate, iron in plates from which cut nails are made. — On the nail, in hand; on the spot; immediately; without delay or time of credit; as, to pay money on the nail. "You shall have ten thousand pounds on the nail." Beaconsfield. — To hit the nail on the head, to hit most effectively; to do or say a thing in the right way.
NAIL
Nail, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Nailed; p. pr. & vb. n. Nailing.] Etym:
[AS. næglian. See Nail, n.]
1. To fasten with a nail or nails; to close up or secure by means of nails; as, to nail boards to the beams. He is now dead, and nailed in his chest. Chaucer.
2. To stud or boss with nails, or as with nails. The rivets of your arms were nailed with gold. Dryden.
3. To fasten, as with a nail; to bind or hold, as to a bargain or to acquiescence in an argument or assertion; hence, to catch; to trap. When they came to talk of places in town, you saw at once how I nailed them. Goldsmith.
4. To spike, as a cannon. [Obs.] Crabb. To nail a lie or an assertion, etc., to detect and expose it, so as to put a stop to its currency; — an expression probably derived from the former practice of shopkeepers, who were accustomed to nail bad or counterfeit pieces of money to the counter.
NAILBRUSH
Nail"brush`, n.
Defn: A brush for cleaning the nails.
NAILER
Nail"er, n.