nail

/neɪl/

nail noun: the horny plate or appendage at the ends of the digits of various animals, including most reptiles, birds, and mammals (both nonhuman and human).

Noun

nail (plural nails)

The horny plate or appendage at the ends of the digits of various animals, including most reptiles, birds, and mammals (both nonhuman and human).

Synonyms:

onychium, unguis
1. (often, specifically) The thin, flat type of such a plate on the fingers and toes of humans, chimpanzees and some other primates.
  - When I'm nervous I bite my nails.
The basal thickened portion of the anterior wings of certain hemiptera.
The terminal horny plate on the beak of ducks and other allied birds.
A spike-shaped metal fastener used for joining wood or similar materials. The nail is generally driven through two or more layers of material by means of impacts from a hammer or other device. It is then held in place by friction.
- Yesterday my shirt got torn after I caught it on a nail.
- Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead; you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill.1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter II, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC
A round pedestal on which merchants once carried out their business, such as the four nails outside The Exchange, Bristol.
An archaic English unit of length equivalent to ¹⁄₂₀ of an ell or ¹⁄₁₆ of a yard (2+¹⁄₄ inches or 5.715 cm).

Verb

nail (third-person singular simple present nails, present participle nailing, simple past and past participle nailed)

(transitive) To fix (an object) to another object using a nail.
- He nailed the placard to the post.
(intransitive) To drive a nail.
- He used the ax head for nailing.
Synonyms:

hammer
(transitive) To stud or boss with nails, or as if with nails.
- The rivets of their arms were nail'd with gold.1700, [John] Dryden, “The Flower and the Leaf: Or, The Lady in the Arbour. A Vision.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
(slang) To catch.
- I pray you now send me some dub, / A bottle or two to the needy. / I beg you won't bring it yourself, / The harman is at the Old-Bailey; / I'd rather you'd send it behalf, / For, if they twig you they'll nail you.1765, “A Song in High Life”, in The Merry Medley, volume 1, London: W. Hoggard, page 35
- Military Intelligence seems to be on the spot in a quiet sort of way. I just met a G-2 slue-foot and he was a most efficient guy! They're keeping low, I think, until they nail their man.1943 October 9, The Australian Women's Weekly, page 3, column 4
Synonyms:

arrest, collar, nick, apprehend, begripe, capture, fang, grasp, get, gripe
(slang, transitive) To expose as a sham.
(slang, transitive) To accomplish (a task) completely and successfully.
- I really nailed that test.
- The chief executive and founder of Meta used his new Threads account to say Twitter had not “nailed” its opportunity to become a mega app and that his copycat version would be “focusing on kindness”.2023 July 6, Dan Milmo, quoting Mark Zuckerberg, “Zuckerberg uses Threads to say Twitter has missed its chance”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
Synonyms:

ace, fullbring, fulfill

Antonyms:

screw
(slang, transitive) To hit (a target) effectively with some weapon.
- Fly-half Ruaridh Jackson departed early with injury but Chris Paterson nailed a penalty from wide out left to give Scotland an early lead, and Jackson's replacement Dan Parks added three more points with a penalty which skimmed over the crossbar.2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport
(slang, transitive, vulgar) Of a male, to engage in sexual intercourse with.
- Allison Reynolds: I'm a nymphomaniac. […] The only person I told was my shrink. / Andrew Clark: And what did he do when you told him? / Allison Reynolds: He nailed me.1985, John Hughes, The Breakfast Club (motion picture)
- There’s a benefit gala at the Boston Pops tonight, and... well, I’m trying to nail the flautist.1999, Neil Goldman, Garrett Donovan, “Da Boom”, in Family Guy, season 2, episode 3, spoken by Brian Griffin (Seth MacFarlane)
Synonyms:

dick, pound, rail, screw, Formal terms, bed, coit, coitize, dight, enjoy
To spike, as a cannon.
- That the Ordinance be not nayled, nor the munition fiered.1598, Robert Barret, he Theorike and Practike of Modern Warres
(transitive) To nail down: to make certain, or confirm.

Synonyms:

clinch, fix, lock down, pin down
(obsolete, slang, transitive) To steal.
- Loud was the laughter at this and other remarks about nailing "stooks" (silk pocket handkerchiefs), "clouts" (cotton ditto), german sausages, &c.1866, Temple Bar, volume 16, page 507

Proper noun capitalized: Nail

Nail (plural Nails)

A surname transferred from the nickname.

nail meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

nail in Hindi

on fingers and toes: नाख़ुन nāxun, नख nakh, नाखुन nākhun
spike-shaped metal fastener used for joining wood or similar materials: कील kīl, नेल nel

nail in Tamil

on fingers and toes: நகம் nakam
spike-shaped metal fastener used for joining wood or similar materials: ஆணி āṇi

nail in Marathi

on fingers and toes: नख nakh
spike-shaped metal fastener used for joining wood or similar materials: खिळा khiḷā

nail in Urdu

on fingers and toes: ناخُن nāxun
spike-shaped metal fastener used for joining wood or similar materials: کِیل kīl

More languagesFewer languages

nail in Bengali: নখ nokh, পেরেক perek, খিল khil
nail in Telugu: గోరు gōru, నఖము nakhamu, మేకు mēku
nail in Malayalam: നഖം nakhaṁ, ആണി āṇi, ആണിയടിക്കുക āṇiyaṭikkuka
nail in Kannada: ಉಗುರು uguru
nail in Punjabi: ਮੇਖ਼ mex
nail in Gujarati: નખ nakh, ખીલો khīlo
nail in Odia: ନଖ nakha, କଣ୍ଟା kaṇṭā
nail in Sanskrit: नख nakha
nail in Sinhala: නියපොතු niyapotu, ඇඟිලි æⁿgili, අතැඟිලි atæⁿgili, පයැඟිලි payæⁿgili
nail in Assamese: নখ nokh, গজাল gozal, খিলি khili
nail in Nepali: ठोक्नु ṭhoknu
nail in Pashto: نوک nuk, مېخ mex
nail in Tagalog: kuko, pako
nail in Arabic: ظُفْر ẓufr, ضفر ḍofr, ظِفِر ḍifir, مِسْمَار mismār
nail in Malay: kuku, paku
nail in Indonesian: kuku, paku
nail in Persian: نَاخُن nāxun, ناخُن nâxon, میخ mēx
nail in Thai: เล็บ lép, เล็บมือ lép-mʉʉ, ตะปู dtà-bpuu, ตาปู dtaa-bpuu
nail in Vietnamese: móng, móng tay, đinh
nail in Myanmar: လက်သည်း laksany:, ခြေသည်း hkresany:, သံ sam, သံမှို samhmui

Examples of nail in a sentence

Dammit, John, I'm tired of this 'Demolition Man' stuff! […] Now, I know you've been trying to nail this psycho for two years, but try remembering a little thing called official police procedure.1993, Peter M. Lenkov, Robert Reneau, Daniel Waters, Demolition Man, spoken by Captain Healy (Steve Kahan):
we'll nail the sophist to it, if we can get him on that charge;2005, Lesley, transl. Brown, Sophist, 261a, translation of original by Plato:

All 40 example sentences with nail

Synonyms of nail

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

screw

All synonyms and antonyms of nail

Forms of nail

Noun
plural	nails
Verb
third-person singular present	nails
present participle	nailing
past participle	nailed
past	nailed
Proper noun
plural	Nails
alternative form	Naill

Past tense of nail: nailed

Plural of nail: nails

Origin of nail

From Middle English nail, nayl, Old English næġl, from Proto-West Germanic *nagl, from Proto-Germanic *naglaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃nogʰ- (“nail”). Cognates Compare North Frisian Nail (“nail”), Saterland Frisian Nail (“nail”), West Frisian neil, German and Low German Nagel, Dutch and Swedish nagel, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål negl, Norwegian Nynorsk nagl, Finnish naula (“nail”), Estonian nael (“nail”), (compare Irish ionga, Latin unguis, Albanian nyell (“ankle, hard part of a limb”), Lithuanian nagas, Russian нога́ (nogá, “foot, leg”), но́готь (nógotʹ, “nail”), Ancient Greek ὄνυξ (ónux), Persian ناخن (nâxon), Sanskrit नख (nakhá).

From Middle English naylen, from Old English næġlan.

From nail, hence a metonymic occupational surname for a maker of nails, or a nickname for a tall and slender person.

Words formed from nail

Phrases with nail

124 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with nail

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about nail

What does nail mean?: Nail means the horny plate or appendage at the ends of the digits of various animals, including most reptiles, birds, and mammals (both nonhuman and human).
What is nail in Hindi?: Nail in Hindi is नाख़ुन (nāxun), नख (nakh), नाखुन (nākhun). See Nail meaning in Hindi.
How do you use nail in a sentence?: Dammit, John, I'm tired of this 'Demolition Man' stuff! […] Now, I know you've been trying to nail this psycho for two years, but try remembering a little thing called official police procedure.
What part of speech is nail?: Nail can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce nail?: Nail is pronounced /neɪl/.
What is the plural of nail?: The plural of nail is nails.

Words near nail in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: nail (page history and authors); Nail (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-nail.ogg.

Cite this entry: “nail.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.