Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to quip, to joke.

1934		M. Fulcher ‘Believe Me’ in Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 17 Nov. 12/3: One lass niftied: ‘Dancing with that guy is like coming in with the tide’.
1938		W. Winchell On Broadway 12 Mar. [synd. col.] ‘Puritans,’ niftied [Aldous] Huxley, ‘like to wear the fig leaf over the mouth.’.
1946		W. Winchell On Broadway 21 Feb. [synd. col.] ‘Yeah,’ niftied another, ‘he’s becoming a Hooperchondriac!’.