bite one's nails
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Exhibit signs of anxiety, impatience, or nervousness, as in We'll be biting our nails till the jury comes back. Biting one's fingernails is a time-honored sign of emotional tension. The Roman satirist Horace described it about 35 b.c.: “As he wrought his verse he would often ... gnaw his nails to the quick” (Satires, Book 1).
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Words nearby bite one's nails
bitchy, bitcoin, bite, bite back, bite off more than one can chew, bite one's nails, bite one's tongue, biteplate, biter, bite-size, bite someone's head off
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
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