Definition

1. Noun:

   • A small cut or notch: A shallow, often V-shaped, indentation made in a surface or edge.
   • (British slang) A police station or prison: A colloquial term for the place where someone is held by the police.
   • An impression in a surface: A dent or mark left by a blow or impact.

2. Verb:

   • To make a small cut or notch: To cut or chip something slightly, creating a small indentation.
   • To steal (informal, chiefly British): To take something without permission.
   • To arrest or catch (informal, chiefly British): To be apprehended by the police.
   • To mate successfully (of livestock): For animals, especially horses, to breed successfully.
   • To divide or reset the tail muscles of a horse: A specific veterinary or husbandry procedure.

Usage Examples

• Noun:

  • There's a small nick in the table's edge from when I dropped the knife.
  • The police took him to the nick for questioning.
  • The golf club left a nick on the wooden floor.

• Verb:

  • Be careful not to nick yourself while shaving.
  • Someone's nicked my bicycle from the rack!
  • He got nicked for speeding last night.
  • The stallion has nicked well with several mares this season.

Advanced Usage

• "in the nick of time": At the last possible moment; just in time to prevent something bad.

  • The ambulance arrived in the nick of time to save him.

• "to nick off" (Cricket, Australian/British informal): To be dismissed (in cricket).

  • The batsman nicked off to the wicketkeeper.

Variants and Related Words

• Nickname (n): A familiar or humorous name given to a person or thing instead of or as well as the real name.
• Nicked (adj, informal): Stolen.
  • That's a nicked car.

Synonyms

• Noun (cut): notch, chip, scratch, dent.
• Verb (cut): notch, chip, scratch, graze.
• Verb (steal): pilfer, pinch, swipe, steal.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Nick off: See "Advanced Usage" for the cricket term.
• Nick in (British, informal, dated): To interrupt or push in, especially in a queue or race.
  • He tried to nick in ahead of me at the checkout.

Related Idioms

• In the nick of time: See "Advanced Usage".
• To nick and tuck (US: nip and tuck): Very close or even, as in a competition.
  • The race was nick and tuck all the way to the finish line.

Noun

1. a small cut
2. (British slang) a prison
   • he's in the nick
3. an impression in a surface (as made by a blow)

Verb

1. mate successfully; of livestock
2. divide or reset the tail muscles of
   • nick horses
3. cut a nick into
4. cut slightly, with a razor
   • The barber's knife nicked his cheek