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NAB . The bolt-toe, or cock of a gun-lock.
NABB . A cant term for the head. Also, a protuberance on the rocky summit of a hill; a rocky ledge below water.
NACA, OR NACELLE . A French boat without mast or sail, used as early as the twelfth century.
NACRE . The mother-of-pearl which lines some shells, both univalve and bivalve.
NACTA . A small transport vessel of early times.
NADIR . The lower pole of the rational horizon, the other being the zenith.
NAID . A northern term for a lamprey, or large eel.
NAIL, TO . Is colloquially used for binding a person to a bargain. In weighing articles of food, a nail is 8 lbs.
NAILING A GUN . Synonymous with _cloying_ or _spiking_. When necessary to abandon cannon, or when the enemy's artillery, though seized, cannot be taken away, it is proper to spike it, which is done by driving a steel or other spike into the vent. The best method sometimes to render a gun serviceable again is to drill a new vent. (_See_ SPIKING.)
NAILS OF SORTS . Nails used in carpentry under the denominations of 4, 6, 8, 10, 24, 30, and 40 penny-nails, all of different lengths.
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