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1. Attach something somewhere by means of nails
   "nail the board onto the wall"
    
2. Take into custody
   "the police nailed the suspected criminals";
   - collar, apprehend, arrest, pick up, nab, cop, pinch [Brit], nick [Brit]
    
3. Hit hard
   "He nailed a 3-run homer";
   - smash, boom, blast
    
4. Succeed in obtaining a position
   "He nailed down a spot at Harvard";
   - nail down, peg
    
5. Easily do well at; pass perfectly
   "She nailed her astrophysics course";
   - breeze through, ace, pass with flying colors [US], sweep through, sail through, pass with flying colours [Brit, Cdn]
    
6. Locate exactly
   "The chemists could not nail the identity of the chromosome";
   - pinpoint
    
7. (football) complete a pass
   - complete
    
8. [N. Amer] Have sexual intercourse
   - sleep together, love, make out, make love, sleep with, have sex, know [archaic], do it, be intimate, have intercourse, lie with [archaic], bed, have a go at it, get it on, make whoopee

1. Horny plate covering and protecting part of the dorsal surface of the digits
    
2. A thin pointed piece of metal that is hammered into materials as a fastener
    
3. A former unit of length for cloth equal to 1/16 of a yard

Derived forms: nails, nailing, nailed

See also: nail down

Type of: attach, bring home the bacon, clutch, come through, copulate, couple, deliver the goods, fastener, fastening, fixing, hit, holdfast, horny structure, linear measure, linear unit, locate, make it, make the grade [N. Amer], mate, pair, pass, play, prehend [archaic], seize, succeed, turn up, unguis, win

Part of: dactyl, digit, integumentary system

Encyclopedia: Nail