rusty nail
3
2.5
- noun
- /ˈrʌsti neɪl/
:
clavo oxidado
- While walking barefoot in the abandoned lot, she stepped on a rusty nail and winced in pain.
- bent and rusty nails
- long rusty nails
- stepped on a rusty nail
Examples
-
"Herbie and I went into the garage, where we found a hammer and two rusty nails.
Fiction book (1999) -
The rest he'd tote away, and then he'd sweep that spot so clean there wouldn't be one rusty nail for a barefoot child to die from.
Fiction book (1995) -
-Be careful of rusty nails.
-
Some people might see just an old piece of iron, a rusty nail.
-
That dock might have rusty nails.
-
There's all sorts of broken glass and rusty nails out there.
-
Chips of wood, rusty nails, and screws came flying out of the shed window into the yard.
Fiction book (1996) -
A hardened, rusty nail.
-
The chairs look commonplace, but long rusty nails stick up from their cushionless seats, making sitting down unthinkable.
Academic text (1993) -
If she had fallen, she'd have landed on top of a tumble of fallen timbers bristling with rusty nails.
Fiction book (1992)
Synonyms
184
1.0
A thin pointed piece of metal with a flat head used to hold things together
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase denotes exactly what is composed by its parts: 'rusty' (corroded) modifies 'nail' (a metal pin), so the meaning 'a nail covered with rust' is directly inferable. This adjective+noun compositional pattern is cross-linguistically common and follows standard English formation, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily understand it.
Etymology
Rusty nail paints a simple picture: a nail left outside so long that water and air turn it orange-brown and rusty. That's why 'rusty nail' means a nail covered with rust and often dangerous to touch or step on.