||Na"ik (?), n. [Hind. nyak.] A chief; a leader; a Sepoy corporal.
||Balfour (Cyc. of India).
Nail (?), n. [AS. nægel, akin to D. nagel, OS &?; OHG. nagal, G. nagel,
Icel. nagl, nail (in sense 1), nagli nail (in sense 3), Sw. nagel nail
(in senses 1 and 3), Dan. nagle, Goth. ganagljan to nail, Lith. nagas
nail (in sense 1), Russ. nogote, L. unguis, Gr. &?;, Skr. nakha. &?;]
1. (Anat.) the horny scale of plate of epidermis at the end of the
fingers and toes of man and many apes.
His nayles like a briddes claws were.
Chaucer.
The nails are strictly homologous with hoofs and claws. When
compressed, curved, and pointed, they are called talons or claws, and
the animal bearing them is said to be unguiculate; when they incase the
extremities of the digits they are called hoofs, and the animal is
ungulate.
2. (Zoöl.) (a) The basal thickened portion of the anterior wings of
certain hemiptera. (b) The terminal horny plate on the beak of ducks,
and other allied birds.
3. A slender, pointed piece of metal, usually with a head, used for
fastening pieces of wood or other material together, by being driven
into or through them.
The different sorts of nails are named either from the use to which
they are applied, from their shape, from their size, or from some other
characteristic, as shingle, floor, ship-carpenters', and horseshoe
nails, roseheads, diamonds, fourpenny, tenpenny (see Penny, a.),
chiselpointed, cut, wrought, or wire nails, etc.
4. A measure of length, being two inches and a quarter, or the
sixteenth of a yard.
Nail ball (Ordnance), a round projectile with an iron bolt protruding
to prevent it from turning in the gun. -- Nail plate, iron in plates
from which cut nails are made. -- On the nail, in hand; on the spot;
immediately; without delay or time of credit; as, to pay money on the
nail. "You shall have ten thousand pounds on the nail." Beaconsfield.
-- To hit the nail on the head, to hit most effectively; to do or say a
thing in the right way.
Nail, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Nailed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Nailing.] [AS.
næglian. See Nail, n.] 1. To fasten with a nail or nails; to close up
or secure by means of nails; as, to nail boards to the beams.
He is now dead, and nailed in his chest.
Chaucer.