Nail, subst. 1) a pointed piece of metal by which things are fastened together: Tp. III, 2, 69. Gent. II, 4, 193. All's II, 2, 26. Cor. IV, 7, 54. Lr. II, 3, 16. Proverbial phrase: “is the old king dead? as n. in door,” H4B V, 3, 126 (cf. Door-nail).
2) the horny substance covering the ends of the fingers and toes: Lucr. 739. Lucr. 739 Lucr. 739 Tp. II, 2, 172. Err. IV, 4, 107. Mids. III, 2, 298. IV, 2, 41. All's V, 2, 31. Tw. IV, 2, 140. Wint. II, 3, 103. R2 V, 5, 19. H5 IV, 4, 76. H6A I, 4, 45. H6B I, 3, 144. R3 I, 2, 126. IV, 4, 231. Troil. II, 1, 115. Lr. I, 4, 329. Ant. IV, 12, 39. V, 2, 223. the parings of one's n. (a trifle) Err. IV, 3, 72. “the very parings of our --s shall pitch a field when we are dead,” H6A III, 1, 102. to blow one's n. (in order to warm one's hands) LLL V, 2, 923. == to take patience: “their love is not so great, but we may blow our --s together and fast it fairly out,” Shr. I, 1, 109. cf. H6C II, 5, 3.
3) a measure of about two inches: “thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, n.” Shr. IV, 3, 109.
Shakespeare Lexicon. Alexander Schmidt. Berlin. Georg Reimer. 1902.
This text was converted to electronic form by professional data entry and has been proofread to a high level of accuracy.
hide
Dictionary Entry Lookup
Use this tool to search for dictionary entries in all lexica.
