squint like a bag of nails
English
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Verb
squint like a bag of nails
- (idiomatic) To squint very much, as though one's eyes were directed as many ways as the points of a bag of nails.
- 1935, Georgette Heyer, Regency Buck, page 230:
- Does she squint like a bag of nails? Is she hideous? They always are!'
- The Earl stood back.'You may judge for yourself,' he said dryly. 'Miss Taverner, little though he may have recommended himself to you, I must beg leave to present my brother, Captain Audley.'
- 2005, Mary Lancaster, An Endless Exile, page 21:
- In his own language, he called out, “Where is she then, Rob? Is she hideous? Does she squint like a bag of nails? Does she screech like a shrew with toothache?” This time, the silence was definitely appalled – not least, I suspected, because there was more than a grain of truth in Hereward's unflattering description.
- 1935, Georgette Heyer, Regency Buck, page 230:
References
[Francis] Grose [et al.] (1811), “Squint like a bag of nails”, in Lexicon Balatronicum. A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence. […], London: Printed for C. Chappell, […], OCLC 23927885.