to nail to the counter
Preserved but no longer current.
To convict and expose as false or spurious; as, "I nailed that lie to the counter at 9nce." From the custom of shopkeepers nailing to the counter false money that is passed to them as a warning to others.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “to nail to the counter” mean?
To convict and expose as false or spurious; as, "I nailed that lie to the counter at 9nce." From the custom of shopkeepers nailing to the counter false money that is passed to them as a warning to others.
Is “to nail to the counter” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.