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Origin of Phrases - D
Dead As A Doornail
Meaning: To be dead, with no chance for recovery.
Example: You might as well junk that car, the engine is dead as a door nail.
Origin: In the centuries before the doorbell, a visitor's arrival was announced by pounding with a knocker upon a metal plate nailed to the door. The nails holding the knocking plate took a beating and had to be routinely replaced. These useless doornails were referred to as being dead.
Nails were once hand tooled and costly. When an aging cabin or barn was torn down the valuable nails would be salvaged so he could reuse them in later construction. When building a door however, carpenters often drove the nail through then bent it over the other end so it couldn't work its way out during the repeated opening and closing of the door. When it came time to salvage the building, these door nails were considered useless, or "dead" because of the bend. In the centuries before the doorbell, a visitor's arrival was announced by pounding with a knocker upon a metal plate nailed to the door. The nails holding the knocking plate took a beating and had to be routinely replaced. These useless doornails were referred to as being dead.