English

Alternative forms

• ten penny nail, ten-penny nail

Noun

tenpenny nail ‎(plural tenpenny nails)

1. (dated) A relatively large nail, three inches (7.62 centimeters) in length.
   • 1841, Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop, ch. 67:

     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, The Last of the Chiefs, ch. 3:

     "Al, I could bite a tenpenny nail in half and digest both pieces, too."

   • 2001 Aug. 26, Fred Chappell, "He was a man, not a super-rube" (review of Ava's Man by Rick Bragg), Chicago Sun-Times, p. 16C:

     He could still climb a scaffold like a monkey, still drive a ten-penny nail with one measured, massive, dead-on blow.

See also

• fourpenny nail
• eightpenny nail
• sixpenny nail
• twelvepenny nail
• sixteenpenny nail

References

• tenpenny nail at OneLook Dictionary Search