▪ I. ˈnicker, n.1 Obs. exc. arch.
Forms: 1 (9) nicor, 3–4 niker, 4 nyker, 5 nycker, nykyr, 6 nicre, 9 nicer, nicker.
[OE. nicor, nicer-, nic(c)r-, = MDu. and MLG. nicker, necker (Du. nikker), ON. nykr (Icel. nykur, Norw. nykk, Da. nök, Sw. neck) masc.:—OTeut. *nikwiz-, *nikuz-, also represented by OHG. nichus, nih(h)us masc. (glossing ‘crocodillus’; MHG. niches, nickes, G. nix), and nicchessa fem. (MHG. -nixe, G. nixe): see nix n.2 and nixie1. The root *niq- may be identical with *nig{supw}- in Gr. νίζειν, νίπτειν, Skr. nij- to wash.]
1. An imaginary being supposed to live in the water; a water-demon, kelpie, river-horse († hippopotamus); also in ME., a siren or mermaid.
| Beowulf 422 Þær ic..on yðum sloᵹ niceras nihtes. 971 Blickl. Hom. 209 Under þæm stane wæs niccra eardung. Ibid. 211 Þonne ᵹewitan þa saula niðer..& him onfengon ða nicras. c 1000 in Cockayne Narrat. (1861) 11 Sona þæs ðe hie inna wæron swa wæron þa nicoras ᵹearwe. c 1205 Lay. 21747 Þat water is unimete brade; nikeres þer badieð inne. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 1447 Þer fond þey Nykeres [F. seraines] þat myry song, Out of þe weye to turne hem wrong. 1340 Ayenb. 61 Þise byeþ þe tuo nykeren þet we uyndeþ in bokes of kende of bestes. Vor hy byeþ a ssewynge of þe ze, þet me klepeþ nykeren, þet habbeþ bodyes of wyfman and tayl of uisssse. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 356/2 Nykyr, Sirene. 1568 Withals Dict. 9 a/1 A nicre, remora, echeneis. |
| 1834 Fraser's Mag. X. 54 The Anglo-Saxons did not cease to believe in the existence..of the elves and the nicers. 1853 Kingsley Hypatia xii, ‘What is a nicor, Agilmund?’ ‘A sea-devil who eats sailors’. 1892 Brooke Early Eng. Lit. I. iii. 59 The nickers lie there on the sloping rocks of the ness, monsters that at mid-day go out into the open sea. |
† 2. [From Du. nikker.] A demon or devil. Obs.
| 1481 Caxton Reynard (Arb.) 100 Alas me growleth of thyse fowle nyckers, come they out of helle? |
▪ II. ˈnicker, n.2
[f. nick v.2, in various senses.]
† 1. One who cheats at play. Obs. rare.
| 1669 (title) The Nicker nicked; or, the Cheats of Gaming discovered. 1714 T. Lucas Lives Gamesters 203 Call'd by the Nickers and Sharpers little Dick-Fisher. |
† 2. One who fits a thing neatly. Obs. rare—1.
| 1676 Marvell Mr. Smirke K b, Yet I am not neither one of the most credulous nickers or applyers of natural events to humain transactions. |
3. One who hits in throwing; applied spec. in the early part of the 18th cent. to disorderly youths who made a practice of breaking windows by throwing coppers at them.
| 1716 Gay Trivia iii. 323 His scatter'd Pence the flying Nicker flings, And with the Copper Show'r the Casement rings. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 361 At a later period arose the Nicker, the Hawcubite, and the yet more dreaded name of Mohawk. 1886 M. E. Braddon Mohawks ix, The Flying Post described how the Nickers had broken all Mr. Topsparkle's windows with halfpence. |
4. One who, or that which, nicks or cuts. a. One who nicks horses' tails.
| 1810 Sporting Mag. XXXV. 263 The defendant's witnesses, whom Mr. Serjeant Pell..described as croppers, dockers, nickers and trimmers. |
b. That part of a centre-bit which cuts the circle of the hole made by the tool.
| 1846 Holtzapffel Turning II. 541 A thin shearing point or nicker, that cuts through the fibres like the point of a knife. 1865 Routledge's Mag. for Boys June 353 The nicker leads or prepares the way for the cutter throughout the entire depth of the hole. |
c. Telegr. A recording apparatus which makes nicks in a strip of paper.
| 1871 Echo 2 Feb., Professor Morse's printing nickers and embossers. |
▪ III. ˈnicker, n.3
Also 7 nickar.
[Perh. f. as prec., but cf. knicker.]
1. = knicker 1. Also pl. as a game.
| 1675 T. Duffet Mock Tempest iv. i, Now I can't teach my Wife to play Nickers. 1696 [see nickar]. 1727 Boyer Dict. Royal II, Marbles (round fine clay Nickers for Children to play withal). 1847 Halliwell, Nicker..(2) a little ball of clay or earth baked hard and oiled over for boys to play at nickers. 1893 J. Inglis Oor ain Folk xii. (1894) 94 Every boy prided himself on having a favourite nicker. |
2. = knicker 2.
| 1888 Advance (Chicago) 27 Dec., What's a nicker? ‘A flat thick piece of lead..which you throw down at the buttons’. 1889 A. T. Pask Eyes Thames 119 The leaden ‘nicker’ is produced from the trousers pocket. |
▪ IV. ˈnicker, n.4
variant of nickar.
▪ V. ˈnicker, n.5 Sc. and north. dial.
[f. the vb.]
A neigh; also, a laugh, a snigger.
| a 1791 Lochmaben Harper xiii. in Child Ballads IV. 19/2 His mare's away to Lochmaben, Wi' mony a nicker and mony a sneer. 1834 in Sharp Bishoprick Garl. 42 Settin up a greater nicker and a whinney. 1883 Cleland Inchbracken xxvi. 210 She just leugh..an' syne she gae the ither nicker. |
▪ VI. nicker, n.6 slang.
(ˈnɪkə(r))
[Origin unknown.]
One pound sterling.
| 1910 Sessions Papers 1 June 128, I suppose this has cost you a couple of ‘nickers’. 1939 [see caser2]. 1960 D. Lessing In Pursuit of English ii. 66 It's a little matter. A hundred nicker. And it'd double itself in a year. 1966 F. Shaw et al. Lern Yerself Scouse 34 Five nicker, five pounds; five pound note. 1975 J. Symons Three Pipe Problem xv. 138 Who said there'd be trouble? Anyway, it's a hundred nicker. |
▪ VII. ˈnicker, v. Chiefly Sc. and north. dial.
[Imitative: cf. neigher v. and nicher v.]
1. intr. To neigh.
| a 1774 Fergusson Hallowfair Poems (1821) 118 The cuissers prance and nicker, An' owre the ley-rig scud. 1820 Scott Monast. xxxiii, Mounted on nags that nicker at the clash of a sword. 1879 Stevenson Trav. Cevennes (1886) 21 This other donkey..and Modestine met, nickering for joy. 1880 L. Wallace Ben-Hur v. ii, One [horse]..nickered low and gladly at sight of him. |
2. To laugh loudly or shrilly. Also trans.
| 1819 W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd (1827) 22 He nicker't sic a lang gaffaw. 1829 Hogg Sheph. Cal. I. 329 She was sae glad that she fell a-nickering. 1863 in Robson Bards of Tyne 254 The keel-bullies nick'rd, but on Mally toddled. |
Hence ˈnickering vbl. n.
| 1881 K. Blind in Contemp. Rev. XL. 199 With shrill nickering..the stallion ran..towards the lake. |