nickel
noun
- chemical element with atomic number of 28
- United States coin with the value of five cents
verb
- colloquial; to nickel and dime someone
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈnɪk.əl/
adj
Etymology: Borrowed from German Nickel, first used in a text by the Swedish mineralogist Axel F. Cronstedt as an abbreviation of Kupfernickel (“a mineral containing copper and nickel”), from Kupfer (“copper”) + Nickel (“insignificant person, goblin”), originally nickname of Nikolaus (“Nicholas”), due to the deceptive silver colour of the relatively valueless ore. Compare cobalt as related to kobolds.
- Synonym of cheap: Low price and/or low value.
“Let me give you the nickel tour of the office.”
name
Etymology: One of the variant spellings of Nichol, a Middle English vernacular form of the given name Nicholas.
- A surname originating as a patronymic.
noun
Etymology: Borrowed from German Nickel, first used in a text by the Swedish mineralogist Axel F. Cronstedt as an abbreviation of Kupfernickel (“a mineral containing copper and nickel”), from Kupfer (“copper”) + Nickel (“insignificant person, goblin”), originally nickname of Nikolaus (“Nicholas”), due to the deceptive silver colour of the relatively valueless ore. Compare cobalt as related to kobolds.
- A silvery elemental metal with an atomic number of 28 and symbol Ni.
- A coin worth 5 cents.
“That is just objectively terrifying regardless of contexts! He looks like if a nickel did cocaine!”
- Five dollars.
- Five hundred dollars.
- Interstate 5, a highway that runs along the west coast of the United States.
- A playing card with the rank of five
- A five-year prison sentence.
- A defensive formation with five defensive backs, one of whom is a nickelback, instead of the more-common four.
- An airborne propaganda leaflet.
“Colonel Hazeltine still had trouble persuading air commanders to drop the nickels. Pilots profanely protested against risking their necks on such foolishness. But in the end 15,000,000 leaflets a week were being dropped on Sicily and Italy.”
“Many types of nickels were used in psychological warfare. Classified according to general purpose, there were strategic and tactical leaflets.”
verb
Etymology: Borrowed from German Nickel, first used in a text by the Swedish mineralogist Axel F. Cronstedt as an abbreviation of Kupfernickel (“a mineral containing copper and nickel”), from Kupfer (“copper”) + Nickel (“insignificant person, goblin”), originally nickname of Nikolaus (“Nicholas”), due to the deceptive silver colour of the relatively valueless ore. Compare cobalt as related to kobolds.
- To plate with nickel.
- To distribute airborne leaflet propaganda.
“The 422d Bombardment Squadron extended the scope of its operations considerably in April and "attacked" Norwegian targets with the leaflet bomb. The number of cities nickeled per mission also increased until it was common for fifteen to twenty-five to be scheduled as targets for a five-plane mission.”
“We flew numerous nickeling missions over the population centers of Southern France, dropping thousands of pounds of leaflets.”