nick1
/nɪk
/- Like the old rifles, the rear sight bears a tiny nick of a sighting notch.
- There are few film defects such as nicks or blemishes to be seen.
- The picture suffers from numerous source defects, including many nicks and scratches, a generally dirty appearance, and discolored film elements.
Synonyms
- Letters Bernie Ebbers shed a tear or two as he was sentenced to 25 years in the nick for his part in the financial disaster that was WorldCom.
- And I'm not sure my friend realised that councils have many other ways of getting their council tax and some of them can have far-reaching effects that go beyond a short spell in the nick.
- We'll go and put a picket round the 'ville while they're in the nick.
- Always in these movies the defendant looks cooked, until a last minute witness shows up at the nick, spurred on by ingenious detective work.
- He ought to be retiring to the nick after all the dodgy warrants he signed for Inspector Fiend.
- I'm Sergeant Peter Lees and this is PC Lee Peters from Westing nick.
Synonyms
- Easdon would step in and punish with his volley, either for depth or occasionally guided crosscourt into the nick.
- Then, almost in echo of Beachill's earlier performance, he hit a forehand pickup from the nick into the tin.
- Does that mean that Gillette will have to start making blunter razor blades so they will not be culpable if we nick ourselves shaving?
- And that was ok too, because, who didn't, every once in a while, nick themselves shaving?
- The fake bills might even be nicked or slightly torn.
Synonyms
- We first see the hero, Jamie, as a violent 18-year-old Gravesend thug who, having nicked a car, runs off with 15-year-old Lynsey.
- Rather than nicking your car stereo, the thief of 2020 will be after your whole digital persona.
- A top Navy Officer was hauled before a court martial yesterday after a laptop packed with military secrets was nicked from his car.
- They nicked me for eight grand for a fourteen-month course.
- They nicked me for about $10 when they cashed my check two days before the due date and didn't post it till two days after.
- Surely the notoriously humourless Singapore police would nick us all, cane us publicly - our bare, welted bottoms would be splattered all over the Sun…
- So clearly, even under the grotesquely inadequate laws of 2003, the police do not seem to have been significantly impeded in their ability to spot-check ID and nick people.
- I would have nicked him too but there was no room in the police car.
Phrases
in —— nick
in the nick of time
Origin
Late Middle English: of unknown origin.
Nick has a great many meanings that are apparently unrelated. The first, most basic meaning is ‘make a nick or notch in’, from which developed various senses to do with striking something or hitting a target. The meaning ‘to apprehend, take into custody’, as in ‘You're nicked!’, is first found in the play The Prophetesse (1640) by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger: ‘We must be sometimes witty, to nick a knave.’ The sense ‘to steal’ is more recent, dating from the 1820s.
The noun nick first meant ‘notch, cut, or groove’; the sense ‘condition’ (‘you've kept the car in good nick’) seems to come from Worcestershire and Gloucestershire dialect, and was first recorded at the end of the 19th century. In the nick of time developed from an old meaning ‘the precise or critical time or moment’, and was in the mid 16th century simply in the nick or the very nick. The slang sense ‘prison’ or ‘police station’ was originally Australian, with the first written evidence in the Sydney Slang Dictionary of 1882. Old Nick, a name for the devil, is probably a shortening of the man's name Nicholas. One theory as to why this familiar name was adopted links it with the Italian politician and philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli (see Machiavellian), although he is reputed to have been unscrupulous and scheming rather than downright evil. Another is that it is short for Iniquity (see equal), which was the name for the character symbolizing Vice in old morality plays—Old Iniquity is found as a name for the devil in the 19th century. Other names for the devil in parts of Britain are Old Harry, Old Horny, Old Ned, and Old Scratch, so maybe there is no particular reason why Nick should have been chosen.
Rhymes
nick2
/nɪk/- Some were even able to nick up the road to one of the two nearby pubs with few objections unless they returned drunk.
- Sometimes I feel like nicking out of the office.
- Entertainment is essential, as this will stop the gamblers in our midst from nicking out every half-an-hour to the bookies next door to bet on every dog and horse race available.
- Around 120 young traceurs, from at least five different time-zones nicked off with their parent's air-miles and hopped on the next plane to London (many kipping on floors) solely to meet and train with the master: Sebastien Foucan.
- Anyway, bails and I went along, had a couple of glasses of free champagne and nicked off just before the speeches started.
- I used to nick off at dinner hour and any spare time to have a chat with the people who were doing the chimneys.
Phrases
get nicked
Origin
Late 19th century: probably a figurative use of nick1 in the sense 'to steal'.