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nigh

[nahy]

Example Sentences Origin

adverb

near in space, time, or relation: The time draws nigh.

nearly; almost; (often followed by on or onto): nigh onto twenty years.

adjective

near; approaching: Evening is nigh.

short or direct: to take the nighest route.

(of an animal or vehicle) being on the left side: to be astride the nigh horse.

Archaic. parsimonious; stingy.

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Nigh is one of our favorite verbs.

So is peculate. Does it mean:

to steal or take dishonestly (money, esp. public funds, or property entrusted to one's care); embezzle.

to run away hurriedly; flee.

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preposition

near.

verb (used without object), verb (used with object)

Archaic. to approach.

Origin:
before 900; Middle English nigh(e), neye, Old English nēah, nēh, cognate with Dutch na, German nahe, Old Norse nā-, Gothic nehw, nehwa; compare near, next

Related forms

un·nigh, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To nigh

Example Sentences

Tenure, in the humanities, for junior faculty is nigh on impossible to earn.

Understanding what is happening-at the level of detail that determines the actual outcome-is nigh impossible.

Every now and then a prominent religious zealot proclaims that the end is nigh.

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Tenure, in the humanities, for junior faculty is nigh on impossible to earn.

Understanding what is happening-at the level of detail that determines the actual outcome-is nigh impossible.

Every now and then a prominent religious zealot proclaims that the end is nigh.

Collaborating with co-workers in the same office is painful enough, but it's nigh impossible over a network.

They preached that the end of the world was nigh and only believers would be saved.

Imagining the end of the world is nigh makes us feel special.

For every nigh perfect set, there are dozens of blah boxes.

Given this background the successful election, in a huge country with little working infrastructure, was nigh miraculous.

Virtually all of them call for catastrophe or that the end that the of the world is nigh.

Use enough, and you can build something nigh indestructible.

It is nigh impossible to get a visa unless one has a powerful sponsor or some other in.

Every generation has some nutty group who claims the end is nigh.

From the outside, however, the way the two cars behaved was nigh on indistinguishable.

More broadly, our society spends so much time avoiding death that it can be well nigh impossible to cope with its reality.

America changes when there is consensus for a change, and that time may now be nigh.

The snow plow, running at a nigh rate of speed, dashed by and crashed into the freight train.

Worse, companies found it nigh impossible to acquire exclusive rights to a government-owned patent.

Lancaster does not appear until the tale is nigh half told.

And even if he could, sticking to it would doubtless prove nigh on impossible around this time of.

By the time game day rolls around, the map is nigh unrecognizable.

Examples of music based on geeky entertainment are nigh inexhaustible, but drawing such parallels is fairly precarious.

Surely, critics say, the end is nigh when private-equity firms themselves are no longer private.

It will be nigh on impossible to cobble together a decent working coalition from yesterday's results.

To these men it is as though they have kept the faith for two decades and now, maybe, salvation is nigh.

It is nigh on impossible to kill a whale quickly and cleanly.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

nigh (naɪ)

—*adj, —adv, —prep*
	an archaic, poetic, or dialect word for near

[Old English nēah, nēh; related to German nah, Old Frisian nei. Compare near, next]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

nigh

"near," O.E. neah (W.Saxon), neh (Anglian), common Gmc. (cf. O.Fris. nei, M.Du. na, O.H.G. nah, Ger. nah, Goth. nehwa), with no cognates outside Gmc. The O.E. progression was neah - near - niehsta, for "nigh - near - next." But the comp. near and the superl. nehst gradually evolved into separate words

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not felt as related to nigh. New comp. and superl. forms, nigher, nighest, developed 1300s as phonetic changes obscured the original relationships.

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Related Words

near neighbor

neighbor

Matching Quote

"I trust the time is nigh when, with the universal assent of civilized people, all international differences shall be determined without resort to arms by the benignant processes of civilization."

-Chester A. Arthur

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