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Glite Dictionary
to spit nails

to spit nails

1 9.9
To feel very angry and show it
  • idiom
  • Slang
translation icon : estar furioso
  • You're ready to spit nails because you can't call the shots.

Examples

  • I bet the Koch brothers are spitting nails right now, and that has got to worry the Heritage Foundation trolls on BDN's forum.

    Blog text (28)

  • You make me want to punch a nun and spit nails.

    Blog text (24)

  • You'll be able to spit nails, kid!

    Rocky (1976)

  • Paul and Phil, I love the column, but this topic has me spitting nails.

    Blog text (32)

  • Sigomal looked ready to spit nails, glowering at Toric and Warbret, who had abandoned his cause.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • FDR spit nails over the Insull and Mellon case acquittals, but I doubt Obama really cares about GS losing this case all that much.

    Blog text (20)

  • She was so angry at the delay that she was practically spitting nails.

  • When he learned the truth about the betrayal, he started spitting nails in rage.

  • The manager was spitting nails after the team missed the deadline.

Synonyms

mad enough to chew nails
vsto spit nails
  • Archaic
9.9

Very angry and ready to do something extreme

is more about showing strong anger rather than threatening action

Antonyms

calm
735 1.0

Not showing strong feelings and being very still

How Angry

to spit nails
  • Slang
1 9.9
furious
238 3.0
angry
∞ 1.0
annoyed
77 1.0
irritated
44 3.1

Surface Forms

spit nails infinitive
spitting nails present participle
spits nails third person singular
spat nails past
spat nails past participle

Morphology

spit + nails

The idiom 'spit nails' means to be extremely angry, but that sense is not transparently built from the literal meanings of 'spit' and 'nails' — 'nails' is semantically unrelated and 'spit' alone does not predict this intensified emotional state. The expression is idiomatic and regionally used, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would unlikely infer the idiomatic meaning without prior exposure.

Etymology

Spit nails may come from a strong image: imagine someone so angry they seem to spit hard, painful things like nails, which makes their words feel like small weapons. That's why the phrase means 'very angry'.