quicks
The tender living flesh under your fingernails or toenails.
Also called the quick.
Updated September 24, 2026
quicks pronunciation
/KWIKS/
Meaning
Clip a nail too short and you hit the quicks. That is the living pink under the hard nail, the part that stings and bleeds. Rural Southern and Appalachian talk kept this older English sense alive. It is the same "quick" you hear in "cut to the quick."
How folks use it
- “Ouch, I clipped clean down into my quicks.”
- “Don't bite your nails that close or you'll get into the quicks.”
Origin and etymology
From Old English cwic, meaning alive. Quick once meant living flesh, as in the quick and the dead. The plural quicks stuck in farm and kitchen talk for the tender bit under a nail. Not the same word as quicksand, even if some lists mix them up.
Frequently asked questions
Does quicks mean quicksand?
Not in this use. Quicks here is the sore living flesh under a nail. Quicksand is a different word entirely.