nickel
English
Chemical element | |
---|---|
Ni | |
Previous: cobalt (Co) | |
Next: copper (Cu) |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/Nickel_chunk.jpg/170px-Nickel_chunk.jpg)
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.
Pronunciation
Noun
nickel (countable and uncountable, plural nickels)
- (uncountable) A silvery elemental metal with an atomic number of 28 and symbol Ni.
- (US, Canada, countable) A coin worth 5 cents.
- Coordinate term: dime
- 2017 October 8, “Confederacy”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 4, episode 26, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:
- That is just objectively terrifying regardless of contexts! He looks like if a nickel did cocaine!
- (US, slang, by extension) Five dollars.
- (US, slang, by extension) Five hundred dollars.
- (US, slang, sometimes the nickel or the hot nickel) Interstate 5, a highway that runs along the west coast of the United States.
- (slang) A playing card with the rank of five
- (US, slang) A five-year prison sentence.
- (American football) A defensive formation with five defensive backs, one of whom is a nickelback, instead of the more common four.
- (UK, World War II) An airborne propaganda leaflet.
- 1945, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 217, Curtis Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 79:
- 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.
- 2010, Richard H. Kraemer, The Secret War in the Balkans, Author House, →ISBN, page 136:
- Nickels, the code-name for propaganda leaflets, were ordinary 8-1/2×11" sheets of paper either printed on both sides or folded in half and printed on all four sides. […] On most of our flights, after leaving the DZ or landing strip we distributed 150 to 450 pounds of nickels over designated areas, and a few of our missions were nickel runs only.
Derived terms
- allylnickel
- Alumel
- antimonial nickel
- arsenical nickel
- bismuth-nickel
- Chromel
- copper-nickel
- cupro-nickel
- cupronickel
- dinickel
- double-nickel
- drop a nickel
- ferronickel
- ferronickelplatinum
- hexanickel
- hot nickel
- if I had a nickel for every time
- Nibral
- nicad
- Nichrome
- nickel-and-dime
- nickel and dime
- nickel-antigorite
- nickelate
- nickelaustinite
- Nickelback
- nickel back
- nickel bag
- nickel-bloom
- nickel bronze
- nickel carbonyl
- Nickel Centre
- nickel chloride
- nickel-chlorite
- nickel glance
- nickel green
- nickel gymnite
- nickel hydride
- nickel hydroxide
- nickelian
- nickelic
- nickeliferous
- nickeline
- nickel-in-the-slot
- nickel-iron
- nickelisation
- nickelise
- nickelite
- nickelization
- nickelize
- nickelless
- nickellike
- nickel nitrate
- nickel note
- nickel nurser
- nickelocene
- nickel ocher
- nickel ochre
- Nickelodeon
- nickelodeon
- nickelous
- nickelphosphide
- nickel-plate
- nickel-plated
- Nickel Plate Road
- nickel pyrites
- nickel regulus
- nickel rich
- nickel-rich
- nickel ride
- nickel salt
- nickel silver
- nickel-skudderudite
- nickel spinel
- nickel steel
- nickel sulfate
- nickel sulfide
- nickel sulphate
- nickel sulphide
- nickel tetracarbonyl
- nonnickel
- not worth a plugged nickel
- not worth a plug nickel
- organonickel
- plugged nickel
- plug nickel
- radionickel
- Raney nickel
- renickel
- tetracarbonylnickel
- tetranickel
- that and a nickel will buy you a cup of coffee
- that and a nickel will get you on the subway
- trinickel
- V nickel
- wooden nickel
- you pays your nickel and you takes your chances
- you pays your nickel and you takes your choice
Related terms
Translations
|
|
Adjective
nickel (not comparable)
- (US, idiomatic, somewhat dated) Synonym of cheap: Low price and/or low value.
- Let me give you the nickel tour of the office.
Verb
nickel (third-person singular simple present nickels, present participle nickeling or nickelling, simple past and past participle nickeled or nickelled)
- (transitive) To plate with nickel.
- (UK, World War II) To distribute airborne leaflet propaganda.
- 1948, The Army Air Forces in World War II, volume 3, Office of Air Force History, →ISBN, pages 496–497:
- 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.
- 2010, Richard H. Kraemer, The Secret War in the Balkans, Author House, →ISBN, page 136:
- From southern Greece to northern Italy, nickeling supplied both occupied peoples and their occupiers with fairly frequent and generally accurate reports of the war — in many cases, their only authoritative source of information.
Translations
|
See also
References
- Weisenberg, Michael (2000) The Official Dictionary of Poker. MGI/Mike Caro University. →ISBN
Anagrams
French
Pronunciation
Noun
nickel m (countable and uncountable, plural nickels)
- (usually uncountable) nickel (metal)
- (countable) atom of nickel
Related terms
Adjective
nickel (invariable)
- (slang) spotless
- 2016, Marie Kostrz, “Olga, architecte, proprio et loueuse occasionnelle, 1235 euros par mois”, in L'Obs[1]:
- Le lieu doit toujours être nickel, ce qui veut dire beaucoup de ménage.
- The place has always has to be spotless, which means a lot of cleaning.
- (slang) perfect, bang on
Derived terms
Further reading
- “nickel”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Swedish
Chemical element | |
---|---|
Ni | |
Previous: kobolt (Co) | |
Next: koppar (Cu) |
Pronunciation
Audio: (file)
Noun
nickel n
- nickel; a chemical element
- a coin of small, but undetermined value
- Jag har inte en/ett nickel.
- I don't have a nickel
- Jag har inte en/ett nickel.
Declension
Declension of nickel | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Uncountable | ||||
Indefinite | Definite | |||
Nominative | nickel | nicklet | — | — |
Genitive | nickels | nicklets | — | — |
Declension of nickel | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Uncountable | ||||
Indefinite | Definite | |||
Nominative | nickel | nickeln | — | — |
Genitive | nickels | nickelns | — | — |
Related terms
- (coin): inte ett nickel
References
- en:Chemical elements
- English terms borrowed from German
- English terms derived from German
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɪkəl
- Rhymes:English/ɪkəl/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- American English
- Canadian English
- English terms with quotations
- English slang
- en:Football (American)
- British English
- en:World War II
- English adjectives
- English uncomparable adjectives
- English idioms
- English dated terms
- English terms with usage examples
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- en:Coins
- en:Nickel
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio links
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French uncountable nouns
- French countable nouns
- French terms spelled with K
- French masculine nouns
- French adjectives
- French slang
- French terms with quotations
- fr:Chemical elements
- sv:Chemical elements
- Swedish terms with audio links
- Swedish lemmas
- Swedish nouns
- Swedish neuter nouns