How to Use fingernail in a Sentence

fingernail

noun
Definition of fingernailnext
  • I trimmed and filed my fingernails.
  • He had dirt under his fingernails.
  • Use your fingernail or a knife to scratch the bark on a twig or a branch.
    — Steve Bender, Southern Living, 4 Mar. 2021
  • First, there is the implant, which is the size of a fingernail.
    — Charlie Fink, Forbes, 10 Jan. 2023
  • Nor was a sore fingernail that led him to wear a glove in warm-ups.
    — Dallas News, 22 Oct. 2022
  • But take your fingernail and scratch the bark from the tree and a pale green line appears.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 29 Apr. 2021
  • The rind should be so tough that your fingernail cannot dent it.
    — Megan Hughes, Better Homes & Gardens, 9 Aug. 2023
  • Nudge off any stuck-on bits with your fingernail and buff the screen dry.
    — Rachel Rothman, Good Housekeeping, 27 Feb. 2023
  • To access the sweet fruit of the lychee, pierce the fruit with your fingernail then peel back the skin and squeeze out the fruit.
    — Ashley Martens, Redbook, 15 Apr. 2023
  • But, like our fingernails, horns get a lot of day-to-day use.
    — Anna Nordseth, Discover Magazine, 28 June 2023
  • His fingernails were long and curved and ridged with dirt.
    — Ellen Barry, New York Times, 28 Jan. 2024
  • To tell whether a branch is dead, gently nick the bark with your fingernail or the back of a pruner’s blade.
    — chicagotribune.com, 17 Apr. 2022
  • If this happens, use your fingernail or a small spoon to get the peanut out.
    — Matt and Ted Lee, Southern Living, 31 Dec. 2023
  • The righthander’s start had been pushed back a day because pf a cracked fingernail.
    — Bernie Wilson, BostonGlobe.com, 4 July 2023
  • Wash the site with soapy water and remove the stinger with gauze or a fingernail.
    — Brianna Taylor, Sacramento Bee, 21 July 2024
  • The Tories lost two of them, while hanging on by their fingernails in the third.
    — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 21 July 2023
  • Watch out for those fingernails when putting this cap on.
    — Nneya Richards, Travel + Leisure, 21 Mar. 2023
  • These cherries were about the size of a fingernail, and mostly pit.
    — Ian Knauer, WSJ, 27 July 2022
  • Those are races that could be decided by the length of a fingernail.
    — Washington Post, 16 June 2021
  • Which means: Aztecs fans have no hair, fingernails or nerves left.
    — Mark Zeigler, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Mar. 2024
  • One mini-ingot the size of a fingernail yields 200 sheets of gold leaf about an inch square.
    — Paul Salopek, History & Culture, 4 Dec. 2020
  • The qubit processor is about as wide as the thickness of a fingernail.
    — Katherine Wright, Scientific American, 28 Sep. 2023
  • Gonzo was clean: clean fingernails, clean-shaven, clean white shirt.
    — Martín Espada, The New Yorker, 13 Nov. 2023
  • The animators used tools that were the size of a fingernail.
    — Lauren Huff, EW.com, 15 July 2022
  • Everton, for the second time in two seasons, clung to its place in the elite by the quicks of its fingernails.
    — Rory Smith, New York Times, 28 May 2023
  • The gas chambers with scratches in the walls from the fingernails of people who tried to hold onto life.
    — Los Angeles Times, 6 Mar. 2023
  • The tiny black and white mussels, about the size of a fingernail, were found in moss balls imported from Ukraine on March 2.
    — Laura Schulte, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 10 Mar. 2021
  • The inverse of a fingernail. d. One who keeps praying in their body, beneath the vaulted dome, deep in the fog.
    — Ilana Luna, Harper’s Magazine , 25 May 2022
  • The Spurs clung, by their fingernails, to a 79-77 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
    — Jeff McDonald, ExpressNews.com, 11 Feb. 2020
  • Perhaps even more likely to give you the heebie-jeebies are her long, curving and webbed fingers and overgrown fingernails.
    — Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY, 24 July 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fingernail.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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