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View synonyms for nick

nick

1

[ nik ]

noun

  1. a small notch, groove, chip, or the like, cut into or existing in something.
  2. a hollow place produced in an edge or surface, as of a dish, by breaking, chipping, or the like:

    I didn't notice those tiny nicks in the vase when I bought it.

  3. a small dent or wound.
  4. a small groove on one side of the shank of a printing type, serving as a guide in setting or to distinguish different types.
  5. Biochemistry. a break in one strand of a double-stranded DNA or RNA molecule.
  6. British Slang. prison.


verb (used with object)

  1. to cut into or through:

    I nicked my chin while shaving.

  2. to hit or injure slightly.
  3. to make a nick or nicks in (something); notch, groove, or chip.
  4. to record by means of a notch or notches.
  5. to incise certain tendons at the root of (a horse's tail) to give it a higher carrying position; make an incision under the tail of (a horse).
  6. to hit, guess, catch, etc., exactly.
  7. Slang. to trick, cheat, or defraud:

    How much did they nick you for that suit?

  8. British Slang.
    1. to arrest (a criminal or suspect).
    2. to capture; nab.
    3. to steal:

      Someone nicked her pocketbook on the bus.

Nick

2

[ nik ]

noun

  1. a male given name, form of Nicholas.

nick

1

/ nɪk /

noun

  1. computing an alias adopted by a member of a chatroom or forum; nickname


nick

2

/ nɪk /

noun

  1. a small notch or indentation on an edge or surface
  2. a groove on the shank of a printing type, used to orientate type and often to distinguish the fount
  3. a slang word for prison police station
  4. in good nick informal.
    in good nick in good condition
  5. in the nick of time
    in the nick of time at the last possible moment; at the critical moment

verb

  1. tr to chip or cut
  2. slang.
    tr
    1. to steal
    2. to take into legal custody; arrest
  3. informal.
    introften foll byoff to move or depart rapidly
  4. to divide and reset (certain of the tail muscles of a horse) to give the tail a high carriage
  5. tr to guess, catch, etc, exactly
  6. intr (of breeding stock) to mate satisfactorily
  7. nick someone for slang.
    nick someone for to defraud someone to the extent of

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Other Words From

  • un·nicked adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of nick1

1475–85; obscurely akin to Old English gehnycned wrinkled, Old Norse hnykla to wrinkle

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Word History and Origins

Origin of nick1

short for nickname

Origin of nick2

C15: perhaps changed from C14 nocke nock

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Idioms and Phrases

Idioms
  1. in the nick of time, at the right or vital moment, usually at the last possible moment:

    The fire engines arrived in the nick of time.

More idioms and phrases containing nick

see in the nick of time .

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Example Sentences

Nick asked her to quit her job to help out with his business.

His method is to slit open the sides of a box first, then slightly lift up the middle before you slice down, so you don’t puncture or nick anything packed near the top.

I moved back to Colorado in 2005 and logged 30 days on the mountain, learning to snowboard behind my friend Nick.

Just one grade ahead, Nick was tall and handsome and friendly.

It wasn’t getting much traction, but a friend of Nick’s, who worked for an e-commerce agency, said that if the two could tweak it for building e-commerce pages specifically, his agency would use it and even pay them.

The incident sparked his belief in Santa, but he would have to wait nearly two decades before dressing up as Jolly St. Nick.

Internet media entrepreneur Nick Denton is a person to whom harsh judgments adhere like barnacles.

For Nick Offerman, of Parks and Recreation, the one is a thing: whiskey.

“The majority of it goes to Nick and Owen, to the company,” former RSD instructor Kole told me.

Pointing out that Nick Denton writes and speaks like a literate adult and not like a 14-year-old in remedial English.

Such of the sound waves is pass through the second nick will become attenuated in charging the chamber B.

Tom pitched forward heavily, saving himself and his animal from an ignominious accident just in the nick of time.

The nick-name of Gigonnet was applied to Bidault on account of a feverish, involuntary contraction of a leg muscle.

"Huh," grunted Mollie, as she flung herself upon Old Nick's back and patted him soothingly.

Nick came over and perched himself upon the table's edge, one leg swinging in the air.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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