hobnail

(hob’nal), nm. [ short thick nail with a pointed tang and a large head, used for nailing the soles of heavy boots and shoes. * Steel, if thou turn the edge, I beseech Jove on my knees thou mayest be turned to hobnails. Shak., 2 Hen. VL, iv. 10. A good commodity for some smith to make hobnails of. B. Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, i, 4. 2+. A clownish person: used in contempt. No antick hobnail at a morris but is more handsomely facetious. Milton, Col aster i on. Hobnail-liver. See hobnwiled liver, under hobnailed.