Dictionary

tenpenny nail en · NOUN

Meanings

1. (dated) A relatively large nail, three inches (7.62 centimeters) in length.
   • 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. 1841, Charles Dickens, chapter 67, in The Old Curiosity Shop:
   • He could still climb a scaffold like a monkey, still drive a ten-penny nail with one measured, massive, dead-on blow. 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:
   • "Al, I could bite a tenpenny nail in half and digest both pieces, too." 1909, Joseph A. Altsheler, chapter 3, in The Last of the Chiefs:

Forms

Relateds

eightpenny nail (2.5 inches) · sixpenny nail (2 inches) · twelvepenny nail (3.25 inches) · fourpenny nail (1.5 inches) · sixteenpenny nail (3.5 inches)