nick

«nick» in Mova's school dictionary: a small cut or notch on a surface or the skin — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (nick, nicks, nicked, nicking); noun (a nick, nicks)

meaning for a pupil

1) A nick is a small cut or notch on a surface or the skin. tree →

2) To nick something is to make a small cut in it. tree →

3) In British, Irish, Australian and New Zealand slang, to nick means to steal. tree →

4) "In the nick of time" means only just in time. tree →

5) "In good nick" (British slang) means in good condition. tree →

6) "Old Nick" is an old name for the Devil. tree →

sense in the lessons

In stories, a hero arrives "in the nick of time". In everyday British slang, "Someone nicked my bike!" means it was stolen; "the nick" can mean a police station or prison. In first aid, a small nick needs washing and a plaster.

examples

• I got a nick on my finger from the paper. tree →
• Dad nicked his chin while shaving. tree →
• Someone nicked my bike from outside the shop. tree →
• The firefighters arrived in the nick of time. tree →
• The old car is still in good nick. tree →
• There's a nick in the edge of the table. tree →
• Nick is short for Nicholas. tree →

note

Regular verb: nicked, nicking. Slang meanings (steal, police station) are informal; do not use them in formal writing. As a name, Nick has a capital N.

In the corpora

• "Old Nick" (old-fashioned, UK) means the Devil.
• He just says, «My dad's a nightmare anyway, you're not missing much,» and nicks a chip.
• "Nicking" is British slang for stealing.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «nick» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.