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nailing |
1 definition found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Nail \Nail\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Nailed}; p. pr & vb n. {Nailing}.] [AS. n[ae]glian. See {Nail}, n.] 1. To fasten with a nail or nails; to close up or secure by means of nails; as to nail boards to the beams. He is now dead, and nailed in his chest. --Chaucer. 2. To stud or boss with nails, or as with nails. The rivets of your arms were nailed with gold. --Dryden. 3. To fasten, as with a nail; to bind or hold as to a bargain or to acquiescence in an argument or assertion; hence to catch; to trap. When they came to talk of places in town, you saw at once how I nailed them --Goldsmith. 4. To spike, as a cannon. [Obs.] --Crabb. {To nail} {a lie or an assertion}, etc., to detect and expose it so as to put a stop to its currency; -- an expression probably derived from the former practice of shopkeepers, who were accustomed to nail bad or counterfeit pieces of money to the counter.
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