Word.ws English Dictionary

tenpenny nail

tenpenny nail noun: a relatively large nail, three inches (7.62 centimeters) in length.

Noun

tenpenny nail (plural tenpenny nails)

  1. (dated) A relatively large nail, three inches (7.62 centimeters) in length.
    • The face, horribly seared by the frequent application of the red-hot poker, and further ornamented by the insertion, in the tip of the nose, of a tenpenny nail, yet smiled blandly in its less lacerated parts.1841, Charles Dickens, chapter 67, in The Old Curiosity Shop
    • "Al, I could bite a tenpenny nail in half and digest both pieces, too."1909, Joseph A. Altsheler, chapter 3, in The Last of the Chiefs

Forms of tenpenny nail

pluraltenpenny nails
alternative formten penny nail
alternative formten-penny nail

Questions about tenpenny nail

What does tenpenny nail mean?
Tenpenny nail means a relatively large nail, three inches (7.62 centimeters) in length.
What part of speech is tenpenny nail?
Tenpenny nail is a noun.
What is the plural of tenpenny nail?
The plural of tenpenny nail is tenpenny nails.

Words near tenpenny nail in the dictionary

  1. tenpence
  2. tenpence to the shilling
  3. tenpences
  4. tenpennies
  5. tenpenny
  6. tenpenny nail
  7. tenpenny nails
  8. Tenpennys
  9. tenpercenteries
  10. tenpercentery
  11. tenpin

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tenpenny 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.

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