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doornail

[ dawr-neyl, dohr- ]

noun

  1. a large-headed nail formerly used for strengthening or ornamenting doors.


doornail

/ ˈdɔːˌneɪl /

noun

  1. (as) dead as a doornail
    dead beyond any doubt
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of doornail1

First recorded in 1300–50, doornail is from the Middle English word dornail. See door, nail
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Idioms and Phrases

Idioms
  1. dead as a doornail, stone-dead:

    After midnight, the town is dead as a doornail.

More idioms and phrases containing doornail

see dead as a doornail .
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Example Sentences

Bethany is dumb as a doornail, and seems to bore Don about as much as his high-profile clients do.

Otherwise, slavish adaptations–being, punctiliously observant adaptations–are likely to be a dead doornail.

The rat's dead as a doornail, and now all of us have got things to do, but fast!

And when the troll saw the sun he burst—and was as dead as a doornail!

He had been a great King but he was deader than a doornail now.

"Say, it's been deader'n a doornail around here for a week," confessed the Meadow Street youth.

A loud crack was heard, and she was seen to spring up and fall back upon the snow, dead as a doornail.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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