"nail biter" meaning in All languages combined

See nail biter on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Audio: En-au-nail biter.ogg Forms: nail biters [plural], nailbiter [alternative], nail-biter [alternative]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} nail biter (plural nail biters)
  1. (literal) One who habitually bites or chews their fingernails.
    Sense id: en-nail_biter-en-noun-uhdONJ3U Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 70 30 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 80 20 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 89 11
  2. (figurative) A situation which causes anxiety, suspense, nervousness or discomfort. Tags: figuratively Synonyms: cliffhanger
    Sense id: en-nail_biter-en-noun-hTtToY2Z

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "nail biters",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "nailbiter",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "nail-biter",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "nail biter (plural nail biters)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "70 30",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "80 20",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "89 11",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "One who habitually bites or chews their fingernails."
      ],
      "id": "en-nail_biter-en-noun-uhdONJ3U",
      "links": [
        [
          "habitually",
          "habitually"
        ],
        [
          "chews",
          "chews"
        ],
        [
          "fingernails",
          "fingernails"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "literal",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(literal) One who habitually bites or chews their fingernails."
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "It was a real nail biter waiting for the test results.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018 August 8, Frank Bruni, “A Nail-Biter in Ohio Is a Democratic Triumph”, in New York Times:",
          "text": "And in a shockingly misogynistic ad, Republicans placed an image of O’Connor in a huddle of three supposedly nightmarish mascots of liberalism, all women: Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton. O’Connor absorbed all of this and still turned the race into a nail-biter.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A situation which causes anxiety, suspense, nervousness or discomfort."
      ],
      "id": "en-nail_biter-en-noun-hTtToY2Z",
      "links": [
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ],
        [
          "anxiety",
          "anxiety"
        ],
        [
          "suspense",
          "suspense"
        ],
        [
          "nervousness",
          "nervousness"
        ],
        [
          "discomfort",
          "discomfort"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) A situation which causes anxiety, suspense, nervousness or discomfort."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "cliffhanger"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-nail biter.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/54/En-au-nail_biter.ogg/En-au-nail_biter.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/En-au-nail_biter.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "nail biter"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "nail biters",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "nailbiter",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "nail-biter",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "nail biter (plural nail biters)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "One who habitually bites or chews their fingernails."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "habitually",
          "habitually"
        ],
        [
          "chews",
          "chews"
        ],
        [
          "fingernails",
          "fingernails"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "literal",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(literal) One who habitually bites or chews their fingernails."
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "It was a real nail biter waiting for the test results.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018 August 8, Frank Bruni, “A Nail-Biter in Ohio Is a Democratic Triumph”, in New York Times:",
          "text": "And in a shockingly misogynistic ad, Republicans placed an image of O’Connor in a huddle of three supposedly nightmarish mascots of liberalism, all women: Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton. O’Connor absorbed all of this and still turned the race into a nail-biter.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A situation which causes anxiety, suspense, nervousness or discomfort."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ],
        [
          "anxiety",
          "anxiety"
        ],
        [
          "suspense",
          "suspense"
        ],
        [
          "nervousness",
          "nervousness"
        ],
        [
          "discomfort",
          "discomfort"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) A situation which causes anxiety, suspense, nervousness or discomfort."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "cliffhanger"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-nail biter.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/54/En-au-nail_biter.ogg/En-au-nail_biter.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/En-au-nail_biter.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "nail biter"
}

Download raw JSONL data for nail biter meaning in All languages combined (2.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-02 using wiktextract (32c88e6 and 633533e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.