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tenpenny nail. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
tenpenny nail, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
tenpenny nail in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Alternative forms
Noun
tenpenny nail (plural tenpenny nails)
- (dated) A relatively large nail, three inches (7.62 centimeters) in length.
1841, Charles Dickens, chapter 67, in The Old Curiosity Shop: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.
1909, Joseph A. Altsheler, chapter 3, in The Last of the Chiefs:"Al, I could bite a tenpenny nail in half and digest both pieces, too."
2001 August 26, Fred Chappell, “He was a man, not a super-rube”, in Chicago Sun-Times, (review of Ava's Man by Rick Bragg), page 16C:He could still climb a scaffold like a monkey, still drive a ten-penny nail with one measured, massive, dead-on blow.
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