Hard as nails, adj. phr. (colloquial).—1. In good condition.
1891. Sportsman, 25 Mar. 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, Med. 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.
1808. Referee, 18 Sep., 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 Mar., 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, Man in the Moone, 510. And tho' he were as naked as my nail, Yet would he whinny then, and wag the tail.
1633. Heywood, Eng. Trav., ii., 1. Did so towse them and . . . plucke them and pull them, till he left them as naked AS MY NAILE.
Off at the nail, phr. (Scots').—1. See quot.
1808. Jamieson, Dict., 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. The Steamboat, 300. When I went up again intil the bedroom, I was what you would call a thought off the nail; by the which my sleep wasna just what it should have been.
Nails on the toes, phr. (old).—See quot.
1602. Shakespeare, Troi. and Cress., 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.
Nail-Bearers, subs. phr. (old). The fingers: see Fork.
Nail-box, subs. phr. (printers').— A centre of back-biting: see Nail, verb., sense 3.
Nailer, subs. (colloquial).—1. An extortioner.
1888. Illustrated London News, Summer Number, 26, 3. The Stomach of the Bar, collective and individual, is revolted and scandalised at the idea of one of its members doing anything for nothing. Yes, put in Eustace, I have always understood that they were regular nailers.
