1819. Vaux, Memoirs, 1., 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, Cant. Tales, Clerkes Tale' 1184 (Skeat, 425). Let noon humilitee your tongë naille.
1760 Foote, Minor, ii. Some bidders are shy, and only advance with a nod; but I nail them.
1766. Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield, xii. When they came to talk of places in town you saw at once how I nailed them.
1875. Gross, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Nailed. He offered me a decus and I nailed him.
d.1796. Burns, Death and Dr. Hornbook. Ev'n Ministers, they ha'e been kenn'd . . . A rousing whid . . . to vend, An' nail 't wi' Scripture, Ibid. I'll nail the self-conceited sot As dead's a herring.
1819. Vaux (J. H.) Memoirs, 1., 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. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Nail . . . The man is nailed who is laid hands upon.
1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle, viii. This is my compact—if he nails you, you will require a friend at court, and I will stand that friend.
1840. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, 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. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., 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. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, xxxiv. Get him to talk . . . he's safe to commit himself, and we'll nail him at the first word.
1877. Five Years' Penal Servitude, iv., 270. He listened to the tempter, 'filched the ticker,' and was nailed almost immediately.
1883. 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. Richardson, Police, 322. Stealing Horses. Nailing backs.
1892. Milliken, 'Arry Ballads, 16. It nailed her. Ibid., 46. You haven't quite nailed.
b.1893. Sir S. W. Baker, Heart of Africa, xxii. We had lost the boats at Gondokoro, and we were now nailed to the country for another year.
2. (American).—See quot.
1885. North American Review, cxli., 434. What did you do before you was a snatcher? . . . Nailed [i.e.] I worked as a 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.—S.J.C. (1889).
1808. Jamieson, Dict., 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, 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, Spanish Curate, v., 2. Pay it on the nail to fly my fury.
