Literally a small barrel used to store nails, but WWI soldiers adopted "nailkeg" as gritty slang for a shrapnel shell — those nasty artillery rounds packed with metal fragments designed to tear through everything in range. The comparison made dark sense: just like a keg of nails exploding outward, a shrapnel shell burst apart and scattered deadly metal in every direction. A piece of soldiers' dark humour from the trenches.
The men hit the ground fast when they heard the whistle — a nailkeg was incoming.
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A keg designed to store nails.
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(WWI, _, military slang) A shrapnel shell.
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