2020年11月3日 星期二

nail, nail-biter, nail-biting, cash on the nail, hangnail, agnail ,Election Turns Into Nail-Biter






+ POOL, Tile by Tile
Three days to go in +POOL's Kickstarter bid to raise $250 grand for a "floating test lab." They're less than $75,000 away from the goal—a real nail biter! Check out the film for more information on the project.

nail, on the nail, cash on the nail
cash on the nail 即金で;

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Incidentally, the US equivalent is cash on the barrelhead or cash on the barrel. Unlike cash on the nail, this may have had a literal connection, either to the barrels used as informal counters in old-time general stores or to merchants refusing to hand over a barrel containing goods until it had been paid for. But it appears to be surprisingly modern: the earliest example I can find is dated 1906.
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Cash on the nail

Meaning
Payment made immediately.

Origin

'Cash on the nail' (or 'pay on the nail') is an extension of the earlier phrase - 'on the nail', meaning immediate payment; without delay. This expression is first recorded in English in Thomas Nashe'sHaue with you to Saffron-Walden, 1596:




Anne Hathaway is no Gwyneth Paltrow. That's not editorializing on TIME's part but a simple fact when it comes to comparing the two American actresses' attempts to nail a convincing British accent. While Paltrow has excelled in the likes of Emma, Sliding Doors, Shakespeare in Love and Sylvia, Hathaway's hapless hammering of the Yorkshire dialect via the part of Emma Morley in One Day is heinous enough to almost bar her from visiting England.


I place an order for coffee from Verve. When two different roasts arrive and I make a show of my excitement, my wife rolls her eyes. She challenges whether I can even tell the difference between the new coffee and two other blends I used to swear by. So we do a blind smell test.
I nail it. My wife seems surprised; who is this new discerning creature? Just getting started, I tell her. Wait until you see what we can do with milk.





nail

(nāl)
n.
  1. A slim, pointed piece of metal hammered into material as a fastener.
    1. A fingernail or toenail.
    2. A claw or talon.
  2. Something resembling a nail in shape, sharpness, or use.
  3. A measure of length formerly used for cloth, equal to 1/16 yard (5.7 centimeters).
tr.v., nailed, nail·ing, nails.
  1. To fasten, join, or attach with or as if with a nail.
  2. To cover, enclose, or shut by fastening with nails: nail up a window.
  3. To keep fixed, motionless, or intent: Fear nailed me to my seat.
  4. Slang.
    1. To stop and seize; catch: Police nailed the suspect.
    2. To detect and expose: nailed the senator in a lie; nail corruption before it gets out of control.
  5. Slang.
    1. To strike or bring down: nail a bird in flight; nail a running back.
    2. To perform successfully or have noteworthy success in: nailed the dive; nailed the exam.
  6. Baseball. To put out (a base runner).
phrasal verb:
nail down
  1. To discover or establish conclusively: nailed down the story by checking all the facts.
  2. To win: nailed down another victory in the golf tournament.
  3. To specify or fix: We were finally able to nail down a meeting time.
[Middle English, from Old English nægl, fingernail, toenail.]
nailer nail'er n.


on the nail
1. Immediately, without delay, as in He paid us back on the nail. [c. 1600]
2. Under discussion or consideration, as in The subject of the budget deficit has been on the nail for some time. [Late 1800s] The precise allusion in these expressions has been lost. Neither has any connection to hit the nail on the head (see under hit the bull's-eye).


 hangnail

 (hăng'nāl') pronunciation
n.
A small piece of dead skin at the side or the base of a fingernail that is partly detached from the rest of the skin.
[名](爪の根元の)ささくれ, 逆むけ.
[Alteration of AGNAIL (influenced by HANG).]


agnail
(ăg'nāl') pronunciation
n.
  1. A hangnail.
  2. A painful sore or swelling around a fingernail or toenail.
[Middle English angnail, corn, from Old English angnægl : ang-, painful + nægl, peg, nail; see nail.]


  • 発音記号[ǽgnèil]
[名]ささくれ(hangnail);(ひょうそ).



A hangnail on left-hand little finger
A hangnail 逆刺皮or agnail is a small, torn piece of skin next to a fingernail or toenail. Unlike whitlows, hangnails are usually caused by dry skin or (in the case of fingernails) nail biting, and may be prevented with proper moisturization of the skin.
When attempting to remove a hangnail, additional skin may be painfully ripped off if its attachment is not broken properly. This may lead to a painful infection called paronychia. Therefore, hangnails should usually be cut using nail scissors or a nail clipper; biting or pulling them frequently makes them worse. People with a hangnail should be careful to cut it all off and rub hand lotion into the cuticles two to three times a day.[1]
The term "hangnail" can be misleading, as a hangnail is not an actual part of the nail. It is dead, dried skin, not nail, the latter being mostly made up of keratin, a tough fibrous protein. It can, however, also include a bit of nail, hanging loose from the rest of the body of the nail, attached to the nail bed. If the hangnail is nail and not skin, it is often necessary to rip it out from the nail bed because cutting it will allow it to grow back, although pain and infection are possible.
Hangnails are also known in colloquial British English as “stepmother’s blessings.”


Man City 3-2 QPRManchester City are English champions for the first time in 44 years, after a nailbiting 3-2 Premier League victory at home to QPR

On Wall Street, a Day of Frayed Nerves
By VIKAS BAJAJ and MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
A
dizzying somersault on the markets on Tuesday left traders and investors biting their nails and wondering what lay ahead. 

nail-biting
adjective [before noun]
describes a situation that is very exciting or worrying because you do not know how it will end:
Germany won the championship after a nail-biting final.

nail-biter
noun [C]
a sports event or a film which is exciting because you do not know how it will end:
Saturday's semi-final was a real nail-biter.

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