/ · 1894 Brewer’s · D · Dead
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Dead as a door-nail. The door-nail is the plate or knob on which the knocker or hammer strikes. As this nail is knocked on the head several times a day, it cannot be supposed to have much life left in it.
“Come thou and thy five men, and if I do not leave you all as dead as a door-nail, I pray God I may never eat grass more.”—Shakespeare: 2 Henry VI., iv. 10. (Jack Cade.)
“Falstaff. What! is the old king dead?
Pistol. As nail in door.”
Shakespeare: 2 Henry IV., v. 3.
Dead as a herring. (See Herring.)
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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