doornail
Lifelessness comparison standard
A doornail is a large-headed nail once used to stud doors for strength or decoration.
The word survives almost entirely in the idiom dead as a doornail, meaning completely and unquestionably dead.
The phrase dates to the 14th century, though why doornails became the standard of deadness is unclear—perhaps because nails hammered through doors and clinched flat on the other side could never be reused.
Upright wall framing
- rivetHeaded pin hammered flat
- tackSharp-headed fastener
- boltThreaded rod for nuts
- hingeMovable connecting joint
latch · bracket · spike · clamp · fastener · clinched · hammered · ironwork
No longer alive
- deceasedNo longer living
- defunctNo longer existing
- extinctNo longer existing
- lifelessDevoid of animation
corpse · demise · expired · perished · departed · inanimate · stiff · finality
Old and outdated
- outmodedNo longer in fashion
- datedOld-fashioned or courted
- obsoleteNo longer in use
- disusedNo longer in operation
old-fashioned · bygone · forgotten · medieval · Tudor · Victorian · historical · traditional
stud
Upright wall framing
hinge · latch · bracket · spike · clamp · fastener · clinched · hammered · ironwork · metalwork
dead
No longer alive
lifeless · corpse · demise · expired · perished · departed · inanimate · stiff · finality · conclusive
antiquated
Old and outdated
disused · old-fashioned · bygone · forgotten · medieval · Tudor · Victorian · historical · traditional · craftsman
doornailvitality
Capacity for spirited existence
the quick · alive and kicking · life · living thing · full of beans
- dead as a doornailUtterly and certainly lifeless
- deader than a doornailExtremely, unquestionably deceased
- as dead as a doornailEntirely devoid of vitality
- dumb as a doornailProfoundly unintelligent expression