Reference > Brewer’s Dictionary > Nailed.

 Nail One’s Colours to the Mast (To).Nails driven into Cottage Walls. 
CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
 
Nailed.
 
Caught and secured in jail. (See CLOU.)   1
   I nailed him (or it.) I hooked him, I pinned him, meaning I secured him. Isaiah (xxii. 23) says, “I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place.” However, the idea may still be, I secured him by making him pay down the earnest on The Nail. (See Pay on the Nail, second clause.)   2
 


 Nail One’s Colours to the Mast (To).Nails driven into Cottage Walls. 

 
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