misnail

English

Etymology

mis- +‎ nail

Verb

misnail (third-person singular simple present misnails, present participle misnailing, simple past and past participle misnailed)

1. To nail improperly.
   • 1931, American Lumberman - Part 3, page 48:

     Easy to handle and apply — light weight — small size , 18 " x 48 " — can not be misnailed because nailing grooves are already provided.

   • 1941, National Lumber Manufacturers Association, A Manual on Sheathing for Buildings: Laboratory and Service Data, page 26:

     There is better nailing visibility of the individual framing members when boards rather than large sheeets are applied as sheathing, i.e., there is less chance of misnailing and the carpenter saves time in locating the framing members when starting the nails into the sheathing.

   • 2001, Hugh Howard, House-Dreams, page 122:

     We should have quit when we misnailed that joist. It was time.

   • 2007, John Updike, Couples:

     He examined the unfinished framing of the annex, noted two misnailed and split pieces of cross-bridging between joists, walked around the front of the house where the porch had been and an unconcluded rubble of mud and hardened concrete splotches and dusty hundredweight paper bags and scraps of polythylene film and insulation wool now was, and, continuing, tapped on the side door, a door that seemed to press outward with the silence it contained.