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Nail in One’s Coffin

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To drive a nail into one’s coffin. To shorten life by anxiety, drink, etc. Topers call a dram “a nail in their coffin,” in jocular allusion to the teetotal axiom.

“Care to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt;

But every grin so merry draws one out.”

Peter Pindar (John Wolcot): Expostulatory


Odes, Ode xv.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Nag, Nagging
Nag’s Head Consecration
Naga
Naglfar
Nahushtan
Naiads
Nail
Nail (For want of a)
Nail-money
Nail fixed in the Temple (of Jupiter)
Nail in One’s Coffin
Nail One’s Colours to the Mast (To)
Nailed
Nails driven into Cottage Walls
Nails of the Cross
Nain Rouge
Naivete (pron. nah-eve-ty)
Naked Lady
Naked Truth
Nakeer
Nala