Word.ws English Dictionary

the nail that sticks out gets hammered down

the nail that sticks out gets hammered down proverb: those who are too different or conspicuous get criticized or sanctioned by others.

Proverb

the nail that sticks out gets hammered down

  1. (idiomatic) Those who are too different or conspicuous get criticized or sanctioned by others.

Origin of the nail that sticks out gets hammered down

Calque of Japanese 出る釘は打たれる (deru kugi wa utareru)

Questions about the nail that sticks out gets hammered down

What does the nail that sticks out gets hammered down mean?
The nail that sticks out gets hammered down means those who are too different or conspicuous get criticized or sanctioned by others.
What part of speech is the nail that sticks out gets hammered down?
The nail that sticks out gets hammered down is a proverb.

Words near the nail that sticks out gets hammered down in the dictionary

  1. the more one learns about people, the more one likes one's pet
  2. the more the merrier
  3. the more things change, the more they stay the same
  4. the more you know
  5. the more you know, the higher you go
  6. the nail that sticks out gets hammered down
  7. the nail that sticks up gets hammered down
  8. the natives are getting restless
  9. the natives are restless
  10. the nerve of
  11. The Netherlands

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: the nail that sticks out gets hammered down (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: “the nail that sticks out gets hammered down.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/the_nail_that_sticks_out_gets_hammered_down. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.