Word.ws English Dictionary

nailbiter

nailbiter is the alternative spelling of nail biter.

Meaning of nail biter

Noun

nail biter (plural nail biters)

  1. (literal) One who habitually bites or chews their fingernails.
    • But Victor did not reveal any behavior disorder, did not pick his nose, did not suck his thumb, was not even a nail biter.1957 March 7, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 4.3, in Pnin, Heinemann, page 90
  2. (figuratively) A situation which causes anxiety, suspense, nervousness or discomfort.
    • It was a real nail biter waiting for the test results.
    Synonyms:
    cliffhanger

Forms of nailbiter

pluralnailbiters

Questions about nailbiter

What is nailbiter the alternative spelling of?
Nailbiter is the alternative spelling of nail biter.

Words near nailbiter in the dictionary

  1. nailable
  2. nailbat
  3. nailbats
  4. nailbed
  5. nailbeds
  6. nailbiter
  7. nailbiters
  8. nailbiting
  9. nailbomb
  10. nailbomber
  11. nailbombers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nailbiter (page history and authors); nail biter (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:

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