▪ I. hobnail, n.
(ˈhɒbneɪl)
[f. hob n.2+ nail.]
1. A nail with massive head and short tang, used for protecting the soles of heavy boots and shoes.
| 1594 1st Pt. Contention (1843) 64, I beseech God thou maist fall into some smiths hand and be turn'd to hobnailes. 1598 B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. i. iv. Wks. (Rtldg.) 6/2 All old iron, and rusty proverbs: a good commodity for some smith to make hob-nails of. 1607 Heywood Wom. kilde w. Kindn. Wks. 1874 II. 95 They treade heavy where their Hob-nailes fall. c 1700 Bp. Kennett in Lansd. MS. 1033 lf. 184 [190] Hob-nail, small short nail, with a round head, used for the bottom of Plough-Men's shoes. 1804 Abernethy Surg. Obs. 50 The sensation as if he was lying on a number of hobnails. |
2. transf. A man who wears hobnailed shoes; a rustic, clodhopper, clown. So Hobnails, as generic proper name.
| 1645 Milton Colast. Wks. (1851) 365 No antic hobnaile at a Morris, but is more hansomly facetious. 1684 Otway Atheist i. i, Thou unconscionable Hobnail. 1705 Hickeringill Priest-cr. i. (1721) 17 Then, replied Hob-nails, how is it possible that there could be either Night or Day, when there was neither Sun, Moon, nor Stars? 1859 Thackeray Virgin. I. 353 Troops of hobnails clumping to church. |
3. attrib. or adj. Clownish, rustic, boorish.
| 1624 Gee Foot out of Snare in Somers Tracts (1810) III. 76 The first question that an hob-naile spectator made, before he would pay his penny..was, Whether there be a devil and a foole in the play? 1628 Earle Microcosm., Country Fellow (Arb.) 50 Hee..has some thriftie Hobnayle Prouerbes to Clout his discourse. 1658 J. Robinson Eudoxa Pref. 3 Barbarous and hobnail phrases. |
4. attrib. and Comb., as hobnail shoe; hobnail-proof adj.; hobnail liver: see quot.
| 1607 Rowlands Dr. Merrie-man (1609) 4 Their Shooes were Hob-naile proofe, soundly bepegg'd. 1847 Buckstone Rough Diamond i, How I used to kick you in my hob-nail shoes! 1882 Quain Dict. Med., Hobnail Liver, a name given to a cirrhotic liver, when it presents small prominences on its surface resembling hobnails. |
▪ II. ˈhobnail, v.
[f. prec. n.]
1. trans. To furnish or set with hobnails.
| 1649 Trag. Massenello 62 I'le..hob-naile my shoos with a couple of old thorns. |
2. To trample down, as with hobnailed shoes.
| 1875 Tennyson Q. Mary ii. ii, Your rights and charters hobnail'd into slush. |
Hence ˈhobnailer, a machine for putting hobnails into the soles of boots (Labour Commission Gloss. 1892).