Definition of "hangnail" [hang•nail]

• A small piece of dead skin at the side or the base of a fingernail that is partly detached from the rest of the skin. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "You will never hear me say * Damn, this hangnail is killing me* ever again."
• "Eric is also a polymath ( "he mastered the steepest matters in half an afternoon") who studies Einstein's special theory in both German and English, reads poetry, contemplates the Middle English roots of the word "hangnail" and works out faithfully (a universal trait of the protagonists of cheap thrillers)."
• "I used the term "hangnail" cause Heidi on FOX31 said it on the air during her review of a Ministry of Pot segment .."