hangnail
Americannoun
-
hangnails
plural
noun
Usage
What is a hangnail? A hangnail is a small piece of skin that’s hanging off near the side or base of the fingernail. Despite the name, a hangnail isn’t part of the fingernail itself. When someone says they’ve broken a nail, they mean that part of their fingernail has broken off. A hangnail, though, is a piece of skin that has become detached from the cuticle or skin around the nail. Hangnails are known for hurting more than you’d expect them to, based on their size. For that reason, the word is sometimes used in negative comparisons to indicate that something is unpleasant, irritating, or painful, but not very serious, as in This job is about as much fun as a hangnail, but it shouldn’t take too long. The word is also sometimes used as an example of the most minor kind of injury, as in He would call out sick if he got a hangnail, so there’s no way he’s coming in if he has the flu. Example: Don’t pick at your hangnail—it will be red and sore if you peel it off!
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of hangnail
1300–50; Middle English angenayle corn, Old English angnægl, equivalent to ang- (variant of enge narrow, painful; cognate with German eng, see anger) + nægl callus, nail; modern h- by association with hang
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Even when my husband is doing well, the worst possibility sits in my mind like a hangnail I can’t stop picking.
From Slate ● Feb. 19, 2026
The entire novel is imbued with reverence for small moments; Blanca describes her love for George as finding a detail as insignificant as a hangnail “entirely overwhelming, too lovely to bear.”
From New York Times ● Aug. 18, 2022
That’s like saying to someone who’s just had a leg amputated: I know what that’s like; I’ve had a hangnail.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 11, 2022
You could have used those six sentences to report on some male star’s hangnail.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2021
When Kabuo had finished telling his story on the witness stand, Alvin Hooks rose and stood before him insistently working on a hangnail.
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
But the truth is that the MCU has always had hangnails, and its world-building has never made much sense.
From The Verge ● Jul. 8, 2019
Though he is supposedly fine now, hangnails tend to require major surgeries with this team.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 31, 2015
The perionychium is the site of hangnails, ingrown nails, and an infection of the skin called paronychia.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
Here is a list of things less infuriating than Dante: hangnails.
From Slate ● Apr. 18, 2013
It was a fact of life, but if I brought it up, people would suddenly get interested in their hangnails and cuticles, or else distant places in the sky, and seem not to hear me.
From "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
