misnail

M3I1S1N1A1I1L1

verb

To nail improperly.

Scrabble 9

Meanings

verbmisnail (third-person singular simple present misnails, present participle misnailing, simple past and past participle misnailed)

present singular third person misnails · participle present misnailing · participle past misnailed · past misnailed

  1. To nail improperly.

    We should have quit when we misnailed that joist. It was time.

    2001, Hugh Howard, House-Dreams, page 122
    3 more examples

    Easy to handle and apply — light weight — small size , 18 " x 48 " — can not be misnailed because nailing grooves are already provided.

    1931, American Lumberman - Part 3, page 48

    There is better nailing visibility of the individual framing members when boards rather than large sheeets are applied as sheathing, i.e., there is less chance of misnailing and the carpenter saves time in locating the framing members when starting the nails into the sheathing.

    1941, National Lumber Manufacturers Association, A Manual on Sheathing for Buildings: Laboratory and Service Data, page 26

    He examined the unfinished framing of the annex, noted two misnailed and split pieces of cross-bridging between joists, walked around the front of the house where the porch had been and an unconcluded rubble of mud and hardened concrete splotches and dusty hundredweight paper bags and scraps of polythylene film and insulation wool now was, and, continuing, tapped on the side door, a door that seemed to press outward with the silence it contained.

    2007, John Updike, Couples

Origin

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

misnail. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/misnail

MLA

“misnail.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/misnail. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “misnail,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/misnail.

Source: misnail on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.