Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to keep a lookout.

1861		Liverpool Dly Post 3 Sept. 7/4: The woman said, ’He’s asleep — I’ll keep nix’ [...] he aroused himself, upon which the woman said ‘Nix the bobby’s coming,’ and ran away.
1866		Liverpool Dly Post 11 Mar. 7/2: Baines stood at the bottom to ‘keep nix’.
1867		All the Year Round 8 June 568: The first thing that an apprentice is taught, before even he is told the names of the tools, is to ‘keep nix.’ Now ‘keeping nix’ is keeping a bright look-out for overseers, managers, or foremen.
1870		Manchester Eve. News 24 Oct. 2/3: [They] had ‘tossed’ [...] to see which of them should steal a pair of clogs, and as the lot fell on Peak, Fletcher was deputed to keep ‘nix’ for the bobby.
1878		Cheshire Obs. 11 May 8/2: Peers, who had been told by S[illetts to ’keep nix,’ stood some distance away.
1883		Dundee Courier 13 Juiy 7/4: I’ll do the job, you’ll only have to keep nix.
1899		Isle of Man Times 2 Sept. 6/4: If they were not disturbed by the police they would put the bones back [...] and Mrs Corris said she would keep ‘nix’.
1908		Truth (Brisbane) 12 Apr. 9/3: Dippers, has ’em workin for them / Keepin nixey awl around.
1914		Joyce ‘Eveline’ Dubliners (1956) 34: Usually little Keogh used to keep nix and call out when he saw her father coming.
1925		E. Jervis 25 Years in Six Prisons 251: The pal was keeping nix.
1939		(con. 1880–90s) S. O’Casey I Knock at the Door 196: Johnny, here, will keep nix for us all.
1942		(con. 1890s) S. O’Casey Pictures in the Hallway 71: It was only a shebeen where drink had to be taken off the premises, unless someone stood at the door to keep nix.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 399: The lookout is said to be ‘keeping nix’.
1970		C. Brown Down All the Days 14: The boys never took risks and always had a lad posted whose awesome duty was to ‘keep nix’.
1989		H. Leonard Out After Dark 88: You have a slash, I’ll keep nix.
1995		P. O’Keeffe Down Cobbled Streets, A Liberties Childhood 140: We want someone to keep nix in case the polis come.

to negate, to make unavailable.

1915		E. Cooper Living Up to Billy 142: He is going up to get her and be married at her folks’, but I put the nix on that too.
1955		H. Tennyson Tito Lifts the Curtain 148: We have to put the nix on dervishes, witches, beggars, ballad singers and these here long festivals up in the hills.
1967		R. Drexler Line of Least Existence 105: I always excuse reverent personages in case they put the nix on heaven when I go all the way.
1973		A.B. Guthrie Wild Pitch 223: Mother thought about buying a couple of hens, but I put the nix on that, saying I didn’t choose to eat off my friends.
1982		McGee & Robertson J.D. Films 131: Arkoff had inadvertently put the nix on what would have been the company’s greatest financial success.
1995		P. Auster Mr Vertigo 79: He said they wanted to turn the redskins into slaves, but the Catholic boss man in the old country put the nix on it.
2008		D. Cannell Goodbye, Ms Chips 87: The man she was married to for only a few weeks — or days — when his parents put the nix on it because they discovered there was insanity in her family.

no, my friend!

1823

‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 126: ‘Nix deberr,’ no my friend. Borrowed of the Russians who lay in the Medway, 1810.

(Aus./US) no more of that! stop it!

1914		H. Hershfield Abie the Agent 31 Mar. [synd. cartoon strip] Nix on that stuff, cul.
1928		Sun (Sydney) 9 Feb. 12/4: Nix on it kid! We’ll say the joke’s on you.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 49: Nix on it!: Stop it! Lay off!