nicker

See also: Nicker

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈnɪkə(ɹ)/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪkə(ɹ)
• Homophone: knicker; nikka (in non-rhotic accents)

Etymology 1

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

nicker (plural nicker)

1. (British, slang) Pound sterling.

   This coat cost me 50 nicker.

   • 1998, Guy Ritchie, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (motion picture), spoken by Tom (Jason Flemyng):

     Seems? Well, this seems to be a waste of my time. That is 900 nicker in any shop you're lucky enough to find one in. And you're complaining about 200? What school of finance did you study?

Synonyms

• (pound sterling): pound (standard), pound sterling (standard), quid (slang), sov (slang)

Derived terms

• Alan Whicker

Etymology 2

Imitative; from 1774.

Noun

nicker (plural nickers)

2. A soft neighing sound characteristic of a horse.

   Hypernym: neigh

   Coordinate term: (sometimes synonymous) whinny

4. A snigger or suppressed laugh.

Verb

nicker (third-person singular simple present nickers, present participle nickering, simple past and past participle nickered)

2. To make a soft neighing sound characteristic of a horse.

   Hypernym: neigh

   Coordinate term: (sometimes synonymous) whinny

   • 1971, Lin Carter, The Quest of Kadji, Wildside Press, published 1999, page 187:

     Behind him, old Akthoob was grumbling loudly, saying something about the midday meal, and Haral, the black Feridoon pony, snuffing in the old, familiar scent of the green meadows of the Chaya's banks, the warm sweet smells of home, was nickering eagerly.

   • 1988, William Nack, Secretariat: The Making of a Champion, Da Capo Press, published 2002, page 58:

     "Nasrullah's nickerin’, Mr. Arthur. Somethin's wrong."
     "Hell, he's nickered before. He nickers all the time!"
     Robinson and Snow looked at each other, saying nothing for a moment, and finally Snow told Hancock that Nasrullah never nickered in the paddock.

   • 2012, Jim Campbell, Bobcat, Xlibris, page 21:

     After a few minutes, the mare walked over and nickered loudly in his ear, and he immediately got to his feet and stripped the gear from the waiting horse.

3. To produce a snigger or suppressed laugh.

Translations

to neigh softly

• Bulgarian: цвиля леко (cvilja leko)
• Latvian: zviegt (lv)
• Portuguese: relinchar (pt)
• Russian: ржа́ть (ru) n (ržátʹ)

Etymology 3

nick +‎ -er

Noun

nicker (plural nickers)

1. (obsolete, slang) One of the night brawlers of London formerly noted for breaking windows with halfpence.
   • 1713-1714, John Arbuthnot, Memoirs of Martin Scriblerus

     your modern musicians want art to defend their windows from common nickers

2. The cutting lip which projects downward at the edge of a boring bit and cuts a circular groove in the wood to limit the size of the hole that is bored.
3. (informal) Someone who nicks (steals) something, a thief.
   • 1934, Eddie Browne, Road Pirate: The Confessions of a Motor Bandit, page 141:

     He […] was far more interested in the fact that I was a car thief and an expert driver than that I was a bandit. […] Car nicker, are you?

Verb

nicker (third-person singular simple present nickers, present participle nickering, simple past and past participle nickered)

1. (UK, informal) To snatch or steal.

Etymology 4

From Middle English niker, from Old English nicor, from Proto-Germanic *nikwis. Cognate with German Nix (“water demon”) and German Nixe (“mermaid”); also related to Old Norse nykr (“water demon”) (see there for further descendants). Doublet of nix.

Noun

nicker (plural nickers)

1. A type of mythological sea creature or sea monster; also, a water sprite; a nix or nixie; a mermaid or merman.
   • 1891, Edwin Sidney Hartland, The Science of Fairy Tales, page 48:

     And in another tale, told at Kemnitz of the Nicker, as he is there called, when he asks the midwife how much he owes her, she answers that she will take no more from him than from other people.

Alternative forms

• nikker

Etymology 5

Mispronunciation of nigger.

Noun

nicker (plural nickers)

1. (euphemistic, vulgar, derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) nigger.

See also

• nicker bean
• nicker nut
• nicker tree

 

Anagrams

• Cernik, Kincer, Renick