nail
part of speech
noun (nail, nails); verb (nail, nails, nailed, nailing)
meaning for a pupil
1) A nail is a thin, pointed piece of metal you hit with a hammer to join pieces of wood. tree →
2) Your fingernails and toenails are nails too: the hard parts at the ends of your fingers and toes. tree →
3) To nail is to fix something with nails. tree →
4) To nail something (informal) is to do it perfectly: «She nailed the test.» tree →
sense in the lessons
things counted or bought in boxes; nails per board, nails used up; in science and health nails grow and should be kept clean and short; phrases «hit the nail on the head» (be exactly right), «nail polish», «bite your nails», «as hard as nails»
examples
- A box has 100 nails. tree →
- He uses 4 nails for each board. tree →
- She painted her 10 nails. tree →
- How many nails are left after he used 35? tree →
- Dad nailed the sign to the fence. tree →
- Cut your nails and wash your hands. tree →
- You hit the nail on the head with that answer. tree →
- He nailed his dance at the show. tree →
note
A thing counted. «For each board» gives a rate: nails = 4 × boards. Trap: «nails» on fingers and toes, 10 each, may be a hidden number. Safety: rusty nails can cause infection; tell an adult if you step on one.
In the corpora
- Nails often grow a little faster in summer and on the hand you use most.
- Rhino horns are made of keratin, the same stuff as hair and nails, so they rot away and rarely become fossils.
- When atoms change partners, a new substance appears, which is what happens when a nail slowly rusts in water.
- Rust forms when iron atoms join with oxygen and water, and a rusted nail weighs more than the clean nail.
- Biting nails and sucking fingers move germs from the hands into the body.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «nail» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.