▪ I. nipper, n.1
(ˈnɪpə(r))
Also 6–8 nypper, 8 knipper.
[f. nip v.1 + -er1.]
I. 1. a. One who nips, in senses of the verb.
Freq., down to c 1640, in citations or echoes of Isa. l. 5.
| 1535 Coverdale Isa. l. 5, I offre my backe vnto y smyters, and my chekes to the nyppers. a 1568 R. Ascham Scholem. i. (Arb.) 85 Ready bakbiters, sore nippers, and spitefull reporters priuilie of good men. 1611 A. Stafford Niobe 93 Thou nipper of mirth, thou vnpleasant toyle. 1630 R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 6 Cold [is] the great enemie and nipper of vegetation. 1661 Jer. Taylor Serm. Opening Parl. Ireland 8 May, [Jesus] gave his back to the smiters and his cheeks to the nippers. |
b. A close-fisted, miserly person.
| 1573 L. Lloyd Marrow of Hist. (1653) 16 Amongst so many nippers of money, he onely shewed himself bountifull and liberall. 1879 F. W. Robinson Coward Consc. ii. xiii, That old, disagreeable nipper of a cousin of yours. |
c. U.S. The Cunner, which nips the bait from the hooks, and the Bluefish, which nips pieces out of other fishes. (Cf. nibbler 2.)
| 1888 Goode Amer. Fishes 297 At Salem they [the Blue Perch] are called ‘Nippers’, and occasionally here and elsewhere ‘Bait-stealers’. |
† 2. Cant. A thief or pickpocket. Obs.
| 1585 Fleetwood in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. i. II. 278 He that could take a peece of sylver out of the purse without the noyse of any of the bells, he was adjudged a judiciall Nypper. Ibid., Nypper is termed a Pickepurse or a Cut⁓purse. c 1600 Day Begg. Bednall Gr. i. iii. (1881) 21 Your nipper, your foyst, your rogue, your cheat, your pander. 1785 Grose Dict. Vulgar T., Nypper, a cut purse, so called by one Wotton, who in the year 1585, kept an academy for the education..of pick-pockets. |
3. a. A boy who assists a costermonger, carter, or workman.
| 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 33 Such lads..are the smallest class of costermongering youths; and are sometimes called ‘cas'alty boys’, or ‘nippers’. 1882 Lanc. Gloss., Nipper, a carter's assistant; a lad who accompanies a lurry or cart. 1887 Q. Rev. Jan. 129 Thirty two spikers with a nipper to each pair drove 63,000 spikes. 1968 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 21 Nov. 3/5 The men, employed by the Public Works Department, claimed the job foreman would not let their ‘nipper’ patronise the sandwich shop of his choice. A nipper is a boy or man who boils the billies, runs messages, buys lunches, and does similar jobs. 1971 R. Roberts Classic Slum viii. 125 The nippers, carters' helps. The nipper looked after the horse and sat guard over goods at the tail end of the vehicle. |
b. slang. A boy, a lad. Also, a girl; a child of either sex; the smallest or youngest of a family.
| [1847 Dickens Dombey (1848) xxiii. 240 Florence endeavoured to believe that the Captain was right; but the Nipper..shook her head in resolute denial.] 1859 Hotten Dict. Slang 68 Nipper, a small boy. 1872 Daily News 8 Apr. 5/4 When he was a ‘nipper’ the wages were 11s. a week, with victuals found. 1875 W. D. Parish Dict. Sussex Dial., Nipper, a common nickname for the youngest member of the family, or for one who is unusually small for his age. 1886 R. C. Leslie Sea Painter's Log 26 Such a boy looks down upon mudlarks very much, calling them nippers and other scornful names. 1892 Williams Round London (1893) 85 The mind of the East End ‘nipper’ is equal to most emergencies. 1901 M. Franklin My Brilliant Career x. 81 By George, you're a wonderful-looking girl!.. You are such a little nipper. 1928 J. Mason Before Mast in Sailing Ships 128 Next to Clarke was a Scottish lad by the name of Nisbet, from Inverness⁓shire. He was the smallest, and was called the ‘Nipper’. 1941 Lilliput Mar. 371/1 A family party..arrived on the scene: Mother, aunty, two nippers—a girl and a boy. 1959 I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. ix. 170 Little 'uns..midge, nipper, penguin, pint-size. 1967 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 3 Feb. 6/8 The establishment of ‘nipper clubs’ for boys aged from eight to 13 would guarantee the future of the surf club movement. 1969 Visct. Buckmaster Roundabout ii. 35 He [sc. a butler] was..always in domestic trouble from the arrival of what he would call ‘another little nipper’. 1972 Times 3 June 19/1 When I was a nipper at school in Glasgow [etc.]. |
II. 4. a. pl. An instrument, usually made of iron or steel, having two jaws by which a thing may be firmly seized and held, or cut through, by pressure exerted upon the handles; forceps, pincers, pliers. Frequently called a pair of nippers.
Various forms and sizes are used for different purposes.
| 1541 R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Chirurg. A iii, A Cyrurgyen..oughte to haue .v. [irons] as Cysers, Nyppers Launcettes, Rasoures, and Nedelles. 1580 Blundevil Horsemanship iv. 68 b, You may pull it out with a paire of nippers. 1658 Sir T. Browne Hydriot. 18 Brazen nippers to pull away hair. 1688 Holme Armoury iii. xxii. (Roxb.) 269/1 He beareth Or, a pair of Nippers, Sable. By the help of these any small peece of Tyn, corner or end, is nipt or cut off. 1752 Mrs. Delany Life & Corr. (1861) III. 179 They must be drawn out of their case with a pair of knippers, no fingers are small enough. 1765 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 158, 85 pair of shoemakers nippers and pincers. 1803 Med. Jrnl. X. 68 Two pair of nippers or small pincers for extracting filaments. 1832 Babbage Econ. Manuf. xi. (ed. 3) 87 The operator then pinches it between the ends of a pair of nippers. 1865 Livingstone Zambesi xv. 305 Its teeth are..so arranged that the edges cut a hook like nippers. |
| sing. 1688 Holme Armoury iii. 309/1 A Glasiers Nipper or Grater. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 1528/1 Nipper, a grasping tool with cutting jaws. |
b. An implement used for seizing large stones in order to move them freely.
| 1840 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. III. 29/1 The stones..were first held fast by an implement, technically called nippers or devil's claws. 1898 Daily News 10 Oct. 9/3 A chain weighing several tons was being lowered down the pit shaft by means of nippers. |
c. slang. Handcuffs.
| 1821 D. Haggart Life 94 That's one of the bulkies from Dumfries, wanting to clap the nippers on me. 1823 Egan Grose's Dict. Vulgar T. 1876 J. S. Ingram Centenn. Exposition viii. 235 The curious part of this [hardware] exhibit consisted in the police nippers. 1910 Encycl. Brit. X. 296/1 Several recently invented appliances are used as handcuffs, e.g. snaps, nippers, twisters. They differ from handcuffs in being intended for one wrist only... The nippers can be instantly fastened on the wrist. 1918 Outlook (N.Y.) 25 Sept. 126/1 A newly appointed policeman..has to buy..a pair of nippers. 1939 Fortune July 104/1 At 2145 one of the detectives put nippers on the prisoner's wrist. 1950 H. E. Goldin Dict. Amer. Underworld Lingo 145/2 We hit a scorf joint (went into an eating place), and the dick (detective) took the nippers off. |
d. slang. Eyeglasses, pince-nez.
| 1876 Lowell Lett. (1894) II. 183, I am writing at this moment with spectacles (not nippers, mind you..) across my prosaic nose. 1899 Westm. Gaz. 28 Jan. 2/1 Miss Flint (slowly donning a pair of pince-nez): What's the good of nippers? |
5. (Usually in pl.) a. One of the incisors, or cutting teeth of a horse.
| 1696 Sir W. Hope tr. Solleysel's Parf. Mareschal 19 There groweth then in the place of these four Foal-teeth..four others which are called Nippers or Gatherers. 1727–38 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Tooth, Nippers, which are the two foremost teeth above, and as many below, which an horse first changes. a 1842 Sir C. Bell Anat. Expression (1844) ii. 53 The incisor teeth or nippers project. 1854 Owen in Orr's Circ. Sci., Org. Nat. I. 285 The first deciduous incisor—‘centre nipper’ of veterinarians—..usually cuts the gum between the third and sixth days. |
b. One of the great claws or chelæ of the Crustacea.
| 1769 Bancroft Guiana 240 Five pair of legs,..each..armed at the end with a pair of red nippers. a 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VI. 369 The two nippers or claws resemble the thumbs. 1848 Johns Week at Lizard 259 The insertion of the point of a knife into the joint of the great claws..renders the nippers powerless. |
| fig. 1877 Tennyson Harold ii. ii, Our great Count-crab will make his nippers meet in thine heart. |
| attrib. 1863 Wood Illustr. Nat. Hist. III. 585 The Nipper-crab (Polybius Henslowii) is a better swimmer than the fiddler-crab. 1863 Kearley Links in Chain vii. 153 Its great hairy nipper claws give it a very distinctive character. |
6. a. A device to regulate the amount of tar used in tarring a rope.
| 1794 Rigging & Seamanship 55 A nipper is formed of two steel plates, eight inches square and half an inch thick, with a semi-oval hole in each four inches wide, which, by the upper plate moving, enlarges or contracts as the tarring of the yarn requires. |
b. In wool-combing machinery, a device for seizing and holding the material.
| 1852 Lister & Ambler in Pat. Abridgm. (1866) 653 A thin plate of iron is inserted between the rows of the teeth so as to act as a nipper. 1889 J. Burnley Wool & Wool Combing 228 The nipper consists of a leather-covered jaw and a top jaw with three flutes. |
7. Naut. a. A piece of braided cordage used to prevent a cable from slipping.
| 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. ix. 44 [The cable] surges or slips backe vnlesse they keep it close to the whelps, and then they..hold it fast with nippers. 1667 Davenant & Dryden Tempest i. i, Nip well there; quartermaster, get's more nippers. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1780) s.v., These nippers are usually six or eight feet in length. 1825 H. B. Gascoigne Naval Fame 47 The gaining side and Cable bound in one, By pliant Nippers which the Boys hold on. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 498 The nipper is passed at the manger-board, the fore-end pressing itself against the cable. |
| attrib. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1780) s.v. Nipper, The persons employed to bind the nippers about the cable and voyal, are called nipper-men. 1802 Naval Chron. 51 We have plenty of powder forward in the nipper-lockers. |
b. (See quot.) rare—0.
| 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Nipper, a hammock with so little bedding as to be unfit for stowing in the nettings. |
c. A thick woollen mitten or glove used by codfishers to protect their wrists and hands.
| 1897 Kipling Capt. Cour. 56 A heavy blue jersey well darned at the elbows, a pair of nippers, and a sou'wester. |
▪ II. ˈnipper, n.2
[abbrev. of nipperkin.]
= nip n.2
| 1848 Lowell Biglow Papers Ser. i. ii, Step up and take a nipper, sir; I'm dreffle glad to see you. 1866 Brit. Workman xii. 78 He could not pass it without having what he termed his ‘nipper’, or what some of the good people of Scotland call their ‘morning’. |
▪ III. ˈnipper, n.3
[f. nip v.2]
One who takes nips.
| 1886 Home Words XVI. 21 The ‘Nipper’, says with confidence, ‘the little drop which I take would hurt nobody’. |
▪ IV. nipper, v.1
(ˈnɪpə(r))
[f. nipper n.1]
1. Naut. To secure (a rope) by means of cross-turns; to fasten with nippers.
| 1794 Rigging & Seamanship 190 The strap is nippered, with a heaver, round the block. 1841 R. H. Dana Seaman's Man. 43 Nippering, is fastening them [two parts of a rope] by taking turns crosswise between the parts, to jam them; and sometimes with a round turn before each cross. c 1860 H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 34 Heaving the two parts of the lanyard close together so as to nipper them. |
2. slang. To take into custody.
| 1832 Lincoln Herald 18 Sept. 2/4 You had better nash (go away) unless you want to be nippered (taken into custody). |
▪ V. ˈnipper, v.2 rare—1.
[Imitative.]
intr. To whisper, gossip.
| 1840 Lady C. Bury Hist. of Flirt xxviii, What are you and the major ‘nippering’ about? |