doornail

American  

[dawr-neyl, dohr-] / ˈdɔrˌneɪl, ˈdoʊr- /

noun

1. a large-headed nail formerly used for strengthening or ornamenting doors.

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idioms

1. dead as a doornail,  stone-dead.

   After midnight, the town is dead as a doornail.

doornail British  

/ ˈdɔːˌneɪl /

noun

1. dead beyond any doubt

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doornail More Idioms  

1. see dead as a doornail.

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Etymology

Origin of doornail

First recorded in 1300–50, doornail is from the Middle English word dornail. See door, nail

Example Sentences

The atmosphere in the O2 was as dead as a doornail hammered into a Dodo and buried in a concrete bunker.

From BBC

“The 1.5 degree limit is deader than a doornail,” said Dr. Hansen, now the director of the Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions Program at Columbia University, during a news conference on Thursday.

From New York Times

Longtime political consultant Garry South told me he thinks Caruso is “dead as a doornail,” and the story on Bass and her scholarship “certainly won’t cost her the election.”

From Los Angeles Times

"When they opened that coffin, there he was, dead as a doornail."

From Fox News

A dead cell is, to echo Dickens’s description of Marley, “as dead as a doornail”.

From Nature