squint like a bag of nails

present singular third person squints like a bag of nails · participle present squinting like a bag of nails · participle past squinted like a bag of nails · past squinted like a bag of nails

1. idiomaticTo squint very much, as though one's eyes were directed as many ways as the points of a bag of nails.

   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.'

   1935, Georgette Heyer, Regency Buck, page 230

   1 more example

   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.

   2005, Mary Lancaster, An Endless Exile, page 21