English · Idiom Candidate

another nail in someone's coffin

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

An event that makes someone's situation worse or more likely to fail

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

sự kiện làm tình hình của ai đó tồi tệ hơn

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: a nail added to a coffin

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The scandal was another nail in the company's coffin

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Topics: Life & death

Common questions

What does “another nail in someone's coffin” mean?

An event that makes someone's situation worse or more likely to fail Literally: a nail added to a coffin

Is “another nail in someone's coffin” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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