> as lemmas

1586 Accts. Treasurer Scotl. f. 59 Raw silk to naill doun the covering.

1669 S. Sturmy Mariners Mag. v. xii. 64 They nail down Quoyners to the Fore-Trucks of heavy Guns.

1679 J. Moxon Mech. Exercises I. ix. 156 Nail it firmly down with two Brads into every Joyst.

1703 R. Neve City & Countrey Purchaser at Lead This Mold..consists of..Boards..nail'd down fast, and upon these, at a due distance..the Sharps are fixed.

1793 J. Smeaton Narr. Edystone Lighthouse (ed. 2) §99 He was going to see the covers of the Hatches of forty of the fish ships..nailed down.

1834 F. Marryat Peter Simple III. vii. 95 The trunks which had been left open were nailed down.

1879 Notes Building Constr. III. 441 Dog nails..are used for nailing down heavy ironwork.

1911 Encycl. Brit. XXIV. 993/2 The top-pieces, similar to the outsoles, are put on and nailed down to the lifts.

1992 M. Riva Marlene Dietrich 41 Hollywood kleptomania, the keeping for oneself anything and everything that is not nailed down during the making of a film, was still many years off.

1707 J. Norris Pract. Treat. Humility iii. 104 Our bodies are as much nailed down to the earth by their own weight [etc.].

1796 H. Hunter tr. J.-H. B. de Saint-Pierre Stud. Nature (1799) II. 58 Wherefore has not gravity nailed them down to the surface of the Earth?

1845 R. Wodrow tr. Z. Boyd in Coll. Lives Reformers II. 130 The gentlemen of Saumur have at last nailed me down to them, and resolved..that I shall..be their property.

1864 J. H. Burton Scot Abroad II. i. 122 Johnson nailed himself down to the hexameter and pentameter.

1893 G. Allen Scallywag I. i. 3 Isabel meant..to nail her down at once to the matter in hand.

1944 Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 25 May 4/3 To nail the vastly strewn Nazi forces down even more firmly where they were, we bombed all railroad lines up the Italian boot.

1969 C. Ives Ess. Before Sonata i. iii. 41 A novel, of necessity, nails an art-effort down to some definite part or parts of the earth's surface; the novelist's wagon can't always be hitched to a star.

1990 Guardian 25 Sept. 8/2 The White House missed the chance of nailing down congressional endorsement of its policies.

1845 T. De Quincey Notes on Gilfillan's Gallery Lit. Portraits in Tait's Edinb. Mag. Dec. 756/2 How it was wrong, might require an impracticable investigation..: but that it was wrong, he nailed down as a point of faith.

1850 J. S. Blackie tr. Æschylus Lyrical Dramas II. 138 To force we never Will yield the suppliant sisters; thus the people With one acclaim have voted; 'tis nailed down Thus to the letter.

1912 W. James Ess. Radical Empiricism ii. 68 The immensely greater part of all our knowing never gets beyond this virtual stage. It never is completed or nailed down.

1948 Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 16 Jan. 1/4 The program committee met last night to nail down final details for the big birthday party.

1994 Amer. Spectator Aug. 71/1 After reading Victory, I wasn't sure if Reagan's role was marginal or major. No doubt later, fuller accounts of the triumph over Soviet Communism will nail that down.

1859 H. W. Longfellow Let. 13 June (1972) IV. xiii. 135 George comes on Wednesdays; but..I cannot nail down to that day.

1967 Amer. Econ. Rev. 57 169 Political rigidity makes it..impossible for one water jurisduction to sell title or rights to another—hence an incentive to rush into construction to nail down the supplies involved.

1972 Business Week 18 Mar. 15/1 Industrial equipment makers..appear more likely to have nailed down new orders.

1994 City Paper (Baltimore) 29 June 11/1 He's nailed down a $75,000 one-year contract as a host on NBC's America Talking (A-T) network, launched by NBC.