squint like a bag of nails

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

squint like a bag of nails (third-person singular simple present squints like a bag of nails, present participle squinting like a bag of nails, simple past and past participle squinted like a bag of nails)

1. (idiomatic) To squint very much, as though one's eyes were directed as many ways as the points of a bag of nails.
   • 1935, Georgette Heyer, Regency Buck, page 230:

     Does she squint like a bag of nails? Is she hideous? They always are!'
     The Earl stood back.'You may judge for yourself,' he said dryly. 'Miss Taverner, little though he may have recommended himself to you, I must beg leave to present my brother, Captain Audley.'

   • 2005, Mary Lancaster, An Endless Exile, page 21:

     In his own language, he called out, “Where is she then, Rob? Is she hideous? Does she squint like a bag of nails? Does she screech like a shrew with toothache?” This time, the silence was definitely appalled – not least, I suspected, because there was more than a grain of truth in Hereward's unflattering description.

References

[Francis] Grose [et al.] (1811) “Squint like a bag of nails”, in Lexicon Balatronicum. A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence. […], London: […] C. Chappell, […], →OCLC.