nicker

Meanings

Noun

• Pound sterling.
• A soft neighing sound characteristic of a horse.
• A snigger or suppressed laugh.
• One of the night brawlers of London formerly noted for breaking windows with halfpence.
• The cutting lip which projects downward at the edge of a boring bit and cuts a circular groove in the wood to limit the size of the hole that is bored.
• Someone who nicks (steals) something, a thief.
• A type of mythological sea creature or sea monster; also, a water sprite; a nix or nixie; a mermaid or merman.

Verb

• To make a soft neighing sound characteristic of a horse.
• To produce a snigger or suppressed laugh.
• To snatch or steal.

Related

Similar words

• pound , pound sterling , quid , sov
• neigh, whinny

Origin

• Imitative; from 1774.
• nick + -er
• From Middle English niker, from Old English nicor, from Proto-Germanic *nikwis. Cognate with German Nix and German Nixe. nix.