Shakespeare Challenge: dead as a doornail

According to uncle wiki ‘ded as a dore-nayl’ appears in the poem Piers Plowman (around 1365). The phrase may even be earlier.

One explanation is that doors were built using wood boards and expensive hand forged nails. To stop the boards pulling apart, long nails were used - and then ‘clenched’ - bent back on themselves and hammered back into the wood. Clenched nails could not be used again and so were said to be dead. They are ex nails. Moribund. No longer of this world.

Anniemay asked what was to stop the head of the nail coming back out of the wood when the point was hammered in. Good question: it appears they held lumps of iron or another hammer against the door to stop this happening.

Here’s a nail I clenched earlier. Obviously I stopped to take the photo before hammering it into oblivion.