E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Hard as Nails.
Stern, hard-hearted, unsympathetic; able to stand hard blows like nails. Religious bigotry, straitlacedness, rigid puritanical pharisaism, make men and women “hard as nails.”
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“I know I’m as hard as nails already; I don’t want to get more so.”—Edna Lyall: Donovan. chap. xxiii.
