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Nail vs Nut - What's the difference?

nail | nut |

In lang=en terms the difference between nail and nut

is that nail is to catch while nut is the head.

As nouns the difference between nail and nut

is that nail is the thin, horny plate at the ends of fingers and toes on humans and some other animals while nut is a hard-shelled seed.

As verbs the difference between nail and nut

is that nail is to fix (an object) to another object using a nail while nut is to hit deliberately with the head; to headbutt.

nail

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) nail, nayl, (etyl) ).

Noun

(en noun)
  • The thin, horny plate at the ends of fingers and toes on humans and some other animals.
  • The basal thickened portion of the anterior wings of certain hemiptera.
  • The terminal horny plate on the beak of ducks, and other allied birds.
  • A spike-shaped metal fastener used for joining wood or similar materials. The nail is generally driven through two or more layers of material by means of impacts from a hammer or other device. It is then held in place by friction.
  • *
  • Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead; you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill.
  • A round pedestal on which merchants once carried out their business, such as the four nails outside .
  • An archaic English unit of length equivalent to 1/20th of an ell or 1/16th of a yard (2.25 inches or 5.715 cm).
  • Derived terms
    * eightpenny nail * fourpenny nail * hangnail * hard as nails * hit the nail on the head * (l) * nail file / nail-file / nailfile * nail polish * (l) * (l) * on the nail * fingernail * rusty nail * sixpenny nail * spit nails * straw nail * tenpenny nail * toenail * twelvepenny nail

    See also

    * claw * talon

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To fix (an object) to another object using a nail.
  • He nailed the placard to the post.
  • To drive a nail.
  • He used the ax head for nailing .
  • To stud or boss with nails, or as if with nails.
  • * Dryden
  • The rivets of your arms were nailed with gold.
  • (slang) To catch.
  • * 2005 , (Plato), Sophist . Translation by Lesley Brown. .
  • we'll nail the sophist to it, if we can get him on that charge;
  • (slang) To expose as a sham.
  • (slang) To accomplish (a task) completely and successfully.
  • I really nailed that test.
  • (slang) To hit (a target) effectively with some weapon.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=October 1 , author=Tom Fordyce , title=Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Fly-half Ruaridh Jackson departed early with injury but Chris Paterson nailed a penalty from wide out left to give Scotland an early lead, and Jackson's replacement Dan Parks added three more points with a penalty which skimmed over the crossbar.}}
  • (slang) Of a male, to engage in sexual intercourse with.
  • There’s a benefit gala at the Boston Pops tonight, and... well, I’m trying to nail the flautist.'' - Brian Griffin in the TV series ''Family Guy
  • To spike, as a cannon.
  • (Crabb)
    Synonyms
    * (to engage in sexual intercourse) bang, fuck, pound, screw, shag (British)

    See also

    * (w) * (w) *

    Anagrams

    * * * * * ----

    nut

    English

    (wikipedia nut)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A hard-shelled seed.
  • There are many sort of nuts - peanuts, cashews, pistachios, Brazil nuts and more.
  • A fastener: a piece of metal, usually square or hexagonal in shape, with a hole through it having machined internal threads, intended to be screwed onto a bolt or other threaded shaft.
  • * 1998 , Brian Hingley, Furniture Repair & Refinishing - Page 95[http://books.google.com/books?id=lPYWVti6GR0C&pg=PA95&dq=bolt+%22nut+into%22&hl=en&ei=FPAWTuXGOIm08QPkl5j8Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CE0Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=bolt%20%22nut%20into%22&f=false]
  • As the bolt tightens into the nut', it pulls the tenon on the side rail into the mortise in the bedpost and locks them together. There are also some European beds that reverse the bolt and '''nut''' by setting the ' nut into the bedpost with the bolt inserted into a slotted area in the side of the rail.
  • (slang) A crazy person.
  • He was driving his car like a nut .
  • (slang) The head.
  • * {{quote-book
  • , year=1960 , author= , title=(Jeeves in the Offing) , section=chapter V , passage=Let the Cream get firmly in her nut the idea that Sir Roderick Glossop was not the butler, the whole butler and nothing but the butler, and disaster, as I saw it, loomed.}}
  • (US, slang) Financial term for monthly expense to keep a venture running.
  • (US, slang) The amount of money necessary to set up some venture; set-up costs.
  • * 1971 , Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas , Harper Perennial (2005), page 11:
  • My attorney was waiting in a bar around the corner. “This won't make the nut ,” he said, “unless we have unlimited credit.”
  • (US, slang) A stash of money owned by an extremely rich investor, sufficient to sustain a high level of consumption if all other money is lost.
  • (musical instruments, lutherie) On string instruments such as guitars and violins, the small piece at the peghead end of the fingerboard that holds the strings at the proper spacing and, in most cases, the proper height.
  • En, a unit of measurement equal to half of the height of the type in use.
  • An extravagantly fashionable young man of the 1910s and 1920s.
  • * 1914 , (w), ‘The Dreamer’, Beasts and Superbeasts , Penguin 2000 (Complete Short Stories), p. 323:
  • ‘You are not going to be what they call a Nut', are you?’ she inquired with some anxiety, partly with the idea that a ' Nut would be an extravagance which her sister's small household would scarcely be justified in incurring [...].
  • (vulgar, slang, rarely used in the singular) A testicle.
  • I kicked him in the nuts .
  • (vulgar, slang) Semen, ejaculate.
  • An extreme enthusiast.
  • a fashion nut
    a gun nut
    a sailing nut
  • (climbing) A shaped piece of metal, threaded by a wire loop, which is jammed in a crack in the rockface and used to protect a climb. (Originally, machine nuts [sense #2] were used for this purpose.)
  • * 2005 , Tony Lourens, Guide to climbing page 88
  • When placing nuts', always look for constrictions within the crack, behind which the ' nut can be wedged.
  • (poker, only in attributive use) Relating to the , the best possible hand on a given board.
  • a nut''' hand; a '''nut flush
  • The tumbler of a gunlock.
  • (Knight)
  • (nautical) A projection on each side of the shank of an anchor, to secure the stock in place.
  • Synonyms

    * (insane person) loony, nutbag, nutcase, nutter * (the head) bonce, noodle (see further synonyms under head) * (a testicle) ball, bollock (taboo slang), nads

    Derived terms

    * coconut * groundnut * hard nut to crack * hazelnut * monkeynut * peanut * nutbeam * nutbag * nutcase * nutter * nutcracker * nutdriver * nutmeat * nutmeg * nut roast * nutshell * off one's nut * sweet as a nut * walnut

    Verb

    (nutt)
  • (UK, transitive, slang) To hit deliberately with the head; to headbutt.
  • * 1999 , Nik Cohn, Yes we have no: adventures in the other England
  • One night, we were fumbling each other out by the toilets when a Rocker in full leathers came out of the Gents and, without breaking stride or saying a word, nutted me square between the eyes. I went down as though shot...
  • (slang) To ejaculate (semen ).
  • Anagrams

    * ----