hangnail
[ hang-neyl ]
noun
a small piece of partly detached skin at the side or base of the fingernail.
Origin of hangnail
1- Compare whitlow.
Words Nearby hangnail
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use hangnail in a sentence
He said in an audible tone that the New Yorker was a human hangnail, no matter where he was born.
Somewhere in Red Gap | Harry Leon WilsonBut it did matter to me that I had to dine on this hangnail pared from a sheep.
Eating in Two or Three Languages | Irvin S. Cobb
British Dictionary definitions for hangnail
hangnail
/ (ˈhæŋˌneɪl) /
noun
a piece of skin torn away from, but still attached to, the base or side of a fingernail
Origin of hangnail
1C17: from Old English angnægl, from enge tight + nægl nail; influenced by hang
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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