different between nail vs whack

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: n?l, IPA^(key): /ne?l/, [ne???]
• Rhymes: -e?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English nail, nayl, Old English næ?l, from Proto-Germanic *naglaz (compare Saterland Frisian Nail (“nail”), West Frisian neil, Low German Nagel, Dutch nagel, German Nagel, Danish negl, Swedish nagel), from Proto-Indo-European *h?nog?- (“nail”) (compare Irish ionga, Latin unguis, Albanian nyell (“ankle, hard part of a limb”), Lithuanian nagas, Russian ????? (nogá, “foot, leg”), ??????? (nógot?, “nail”), Ancient Greek ???? (ónux), Persian ????? (nâxon), Sanskrit ?? (nakhá)).

Noun

nail (plural nails)

1. The thin, horny plate at the ends of fingers and toes on humans and some other animals.

2. The basal thickened portion of the anterior wings of certain hemiptera.
3. The terminal horny plate on the beak of ducks, and other allied birds.
4. The claw of a bird or other animal.
5. 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.
6. A round pedestal on which merchants once carried out their business, such as the four nails outside The Exchange, Bristol.
7. An archaic English unit of length equivalent to ¹?₂₀ of an ell or ¹?₁₆ of a yard (2+¹?₄ inches or 5.715 cm).

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• claw
• talon

Etymology 2

From Middle English naylen, from Old English næ?lan.

Verb

nail (third-person singular simple present nails, present participle nailing, simple past and past participle nailed)

1. (transitive) To fix (an object) to another object using a nail.

   Synonyms: pin, rivet, screw; see also Thesaurus:join

2. (intransitive) To drive a nail.

   Synonym: hammer

3. (transitive) To stud or boss with nails, or as if with nails.

   • The rivets of their arms were nail'd with gold.

4. (slang) To catch.

   Synonyms: arrest, collar, nick; see also Thesaurus:capture
5. (transitive, slang) To expose as a sham.
6. (transitive, slang) To accomplish (a task) completely and successfully.

   Synonyms: ace, fullbring, fulfill

7. (transitive, slang) To hit (a target) effectively with some weapon.
8. (transitive, vulgar, slang) Of a male, to engage in sexual intercourse with.

   Synonyms: dick, pound, rail, screw; see also Thesaurus:copulate with
9. To spike, as a cannon.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Crabb to this entry?)

10. (transitive) To nail down: to make certain, or confirm.

    Synonyms: clinch, fix, lock down, pin down

Translations

See also

• Wikipedia disambiguation page on both meanings of nail
• Wikipedia disambiguation page on spike
• Nail in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• I-lan, INLA, Ilan, LNAI, Lain, Lani, Lian, Lina, Nila, anil, lain

Bouyei

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /n?i??/

Etymology 1

Noun

nail

1. grandmother

Etymology 2

Noun

nail

1. snow
2. ice

Middle English

Noun

nail

1. Alternative form of nayl

Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nai?l/

Noun

nail

1. Nasal mutation of dail.

Mutation

English

Etymology

Uncertain. Originally Scottish. Probably onomatopoeic, although possibly a variant of thwack.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wæk/
• (without the wine–whine merger) IPA^(key): /?æk/
• Rhymes: -æk
• Homophone: wack (accents with the wine-whine merger)

Noun

whack (plural whacks)

1. The sound of a heavy strike.
2. The strike itself.
3. The stroke itself, regardless of its successful impact.
4. (US, slang) An attempt, a chance, a turn, a go, originally an attempt to beat someone or something.

   C'mon. Take a whack at it.

   40 bucks a whack.

5. (originally Britain cant, dated) A share, a portion, especially a full share or large portion.
   • 1906, Jack London, White Fang, New York: Grosset and Dunlap, Part 1, Chapter 2, p. 16,^[1]

     “It’s damned tame, whatever it is, comin’ in here at feedin’ time an’ gettin’ its whack of fish.”

   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, New York: Appleton, Chapter VII, page 108,^[2]

     “ […] O'Cannon's a taxpayer. He pays his whack towards the upkeep of the State School up in town—”

   • 1951, Katherine Mansfield, Letters to John Middleton Murry, 1913-1922,

     For one thing I had a splendid supper when I got on board—a whack of cold, lean beef and pighells, bread, butter ad lib., tea, and plenty of good bread.

   • 2014, Anthony Pritchard, Grand Prix Ferrari (page 203)

     There were problems over the installation of the engine and the handling. The team had paid top whack for the two Coopers, but the company gave them no help at all.

6. (obsolete) A whack-up: a division of an amount into separate whacks, a divvying up.
7. (US, obsolete) A deal, an agreement.
   • 1876, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Ch. vi, page 70:

     "I'll stay if you will."
     "Good—that's a whack."

   It's a whack!

8. (typography, computing, slang) The backslash, ??\??.

   del c:\docs\readme.txt

   Delete c colon whack docs whack readme dot text.

Derived terms

• full whack
• have a whack at
• out of whack
• take a whack at
• top whack
• wacky
• whack up, whack-up

Translations

Verb

whack (third-person singular simple present whacks, present participle whacking, simple past and past participle whacked)

1. To hit, slap or strike.
   • G. W. Cable

     Rodsmen were whacking their way through willow brakes.

2. (slang) To kill, bump off.
3. (transitive, slang) To share or parcel out (often with up).

   to whack the spoils of a robbery

   • 1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, London: G. Newbold, Volume 2, p. 152,

     When the sewer-hunters consider they have searched long enough […] the gang […] count out the money they have picked up, and proceed to dispose of the old metal, bones, rope, &c.; this done, they then, as they term it, “whack” the whole lot; that is, they divide it equally among all hands.

4. (sports) To beat convincingly; to thrash.
   • 2012, Ryan Pyette, Majors, Panthers play mind games, The London Free Press:

     The fidgety Majors were whacked 9-1 by the Kitchener Panthers at Couch and now trail their rivals 2-0 in an increasingly uncomfortable best-of-seven Intercounty Baseball League first-round series.

5. (Britain, chiefly in the negative) To surpass; to better.
   • 2012, Steve Cullen, Total Flyfisher:

     Recently I was over in Ireland, I love the place, proper fishing, can't whack it!

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:kill

Derived terms

• whack off
• whack the illy

Translations

Adjective

whack (comparative whacker, superlative whackest)

1. Alternative form of wack (“crazy”)

   That's whack, yo!

   • 2007, Joyce E. Davis, Can't Stop The Shine, page 51:

     As they joked about the big butts on female celebrities and what rappers had the whackest lyrics, Malcolm paid little attention to Kalia besides squeezing her hand or grabbing her arm to hold himself up […]

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "whack, n." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1923.