ˈhang-nail
[f. hang v. + nail; but historically an accommodated form of angnail; cf. agnail 3.]
A small piece of epidermis partially detached, but hanging by one end, near to a nail.
| 1678 R. L'Estrange Seneca's Mor. xxiii. (1705) 482 The Ripping of a Hang-nail is sufficient to Dispatch us. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Hang-nail, a minute portion of the cuticle, rising and slivered off about the roots of the finger-nails. 1842 F. A. Kemble Rec. Later Life (1882) II. 219 Will you..be so good as to remember what a hang-nail is like? |