/ · 1894 Brewer’s · N · Nail in One’s Coffin
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
To drive a nail into one’s coffin. To shorten life by anxiety, drink, etc. Topers call a dram “a nail in their coffin,” in jocular allusion to the teetotal axiom.
“Care to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt;
But every grin so merry draws one out.”
Peter Pindar (John Wolcot): Expostulatory
Odes, Ode xv.
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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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