▪ I. knicker
(ˈnɪkə(r))
[In sense 1, understood to be a. Du. knikker, local Ger. knicker, marble (used in school-boy play), app. agent-n. from knikken, knicken to crack, snap, knick; adopted in U.S. But nicker (q.v.) in this or a similar sense is much earlier in Eng. The connexion of the other senses, and their spelling with kn- or n- is also uncertain.]
1. A boys' ‘marble’ of baked clay; esp. one placed between the forefinger and thumb, and propelled by a jerk of the latter, so as to strike at another marble.
| 1860 Bartlett Dict. Americanisms, Knicker or Nicker, a boy's clay marble; a common term in New York. |
2. (Also nicker). A large flat button or disk of metal, used as a pitcher, in the boys' game ‘on the line’, played with buttons.
| 1899 N. & Q. 9th Ser. III. 185/2 The buttons of the coach⁓man type, with the shank battered down, made a good ‘nicker’, or ‘knicker’. |
3. A game played in Suffolk with stones (of the same nature as duck or duck-stone). Also the stone thrown by each player.
| 1900 F. Hall in Eng. Dial. Dict. |
▪ II. knicker
variant of nicker v.