nipper

[ nip-er ]
See synonyms for: nippernippers on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. a person or thing that nips.

  2. Usually nippers. a device for nipping, as pincers or forceps.

  1. one of the two large claws of a crustacean.

  2. Metalworking. dog (def. 11).

  3. nippers, Older Slang. handcuffs.

  4. Informal.

    • a small boy.

    • Chiefly British. a costermonger's helper or assistant.

  5. Nautical. a short rope for seizing an anchor cable to a messenger from a capstan.

Origin of nipper

1
First recorded in 1525–35; nip1 + -er1

Words Nearby nipper

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use nipper in a sentence

  • The creature was covered with short hairs, and had a pair of nipper-like jaws, with which he could inflict an ugly wound.

    A Mortal Antipathy | Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
  • The disposal of poor nipper's earthly part was a tedious business, but it was accomplished finally.

    Pippin; A Wandering Flame | Laura E. Richards
  • nipper Crewe's wheel, well known to every burglar in the state, with the finest kit of breakin' tools made by man hid away in it!

    Pippin; A Wandering Flame | Laura E. Richards
  • He is quite rightly prouder of that exploit than of all the nipper's subsequent learning.

    Essays on Modern Novelists | William Lyon Phelps
  • Dyou think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled them ever since I was a nipper?

British Dictionary definitions for nipper

nipper

/ (ˈnɪpə) /


noun
  1. a person or thing that nips

  2. the large pincer-like claw of a lobster, crab, or similar crustacean

  1. informal a small child

  2. Australian a type of small prawn used as bait

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012