nick🔊

A small cut in a surface.

(now rare) A particular place or point considered as marked by a nick; the exact point or critical moment.

(printing, dated) A notch cut crosswise in the shank of a type, to assist a compositor in placing it properly in the stick, and in distribution.

(cricket) A small deflection of the ball off the edge of the bat, often going to the wicket-keeper for a catch.

(genetics) One of the single-stranded DNA segments produced during nick translation.

(real tennis, squash, racquetball) The point where the wall of the court meets the floor.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, colloquial) Condition, state.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, law enforcement, slang) A police station or prison.

To make a nick or notch in; to cut or scratch in a minor way.

To make ragged or uneven, as by cutting nicks or notches in; to deface, to mar.

(rare) To make a crosscut or cuts on the underside of (the tail of a horse, in order to make the animal carry it higher).

(obsolete) To fit into or suit, as by a correspondence of nicks; to tally with.

(figurative) To hit at, or in, the nick; to touch rightly; to strike at the precise point or time.

(cricket) To hit the ball with the edge of the bat and produce a fine deflection.

(gaming) To throw or turn up (a number when playing dice); to hit upon.

(mining) To make a cut at the side of the face.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) To steal.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, law enforcement, slang) To arrest.

(obsolete) To give or call (someone) by a nickname; to style.

(archaic) A nix or nixie (water spirit).