nick n.3
1. a low-class casino.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Censor (London) 11 Jan. 6/2: [T]he den [is]called the ‘Little Nick,’ an association with the common designation of a low hell, where the stakes are of copper of any denomination. | |
| Twice Round the Clock 384: They come [...] to wheedle and extort odd silver sums, with which to gamble at atrocious ‘nicks,’ and tobacco-enveloped gambling dens. |
2. (orig. Aus.) with ref. to imprisonment, capture [milit. use nick, the guard-room].
(a) a prison.
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Sydney Sl. Dict. 9/2: Black Bess lumbered Mother Shooter to the Nick yesterday. She got a dream for chovy bouncing. The prison van took Mother Shooter to Darlinghurst jail yesterday. She got six months for shoplifting. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Nov. 40/2: Then th’ bloke what owned th’ saloon starts yappin’. ‘Yer ruinin’ me place,’ he says. ‘Shut yer head about yer place,’ we says. ‘Have some sense. Can’t yer see we’ll all be in nick if we don’t git out o’ this.’. | |
| Gentlemen of the Broad Arrows 45: We saw how he came back to the nick. | |
| Of Love And Hunger 211: I’m going to the Nick [...] Nice little stretch o’ civvy nick’ll do me fine. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Ginger Man (1958) 332: A shirt in my closet there I wore in the nick. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | (con. 1940s) Borstal Boy 28: We’d be shoved up to the nick together. | |
| Long and the Short and the Tall Act I: I’ll have you in the nick so fast your feet won’t touch the ground. | |
| Guntz 5: I had [...] no prospects whatever except maybe the prospect of returning to the nick again. | |
 | Chocolate Frog (1973) 37: tosser: [Y]er never been in the nick before? | |
| Inside the Und. 27: The hardships of this particular nick [...] had been extremely rejuvenating. | |
| 1985 (1980) 165: Six months of [...] sleeping beneath hedges and in the nick and out of it. | |
| Doing Time 192: nick: prison. | |
| (con. 1950s–60s) Little Legs 39: He [...] becomes a big strong man in the nick. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Trainspotting 16: Swanny’s vanished, Seeker’s in the nick. | |
| Wind & Monkey (2013) [ebook] ‘I’ve got a choice between getting my picture in the paper. And going in the nick’. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 33: nick n. Prison . | |
| Indep. 10 Jan. 18: An eloquent picture appeared in the weekend papers of Jonathan Aitken leaving the nick. | |
| Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 124/1: nick(also old nick) n. prison. | |
| Intractable [ebook] ‘I just get that feeling he’s on a one-way track to the nick’. | |
| Stoning 210: ‘I deserved to go to the nick’. | |
| Empty Wigs (t/s) 501: [H]e got to pay his debt in an English nick... Can you imagine a Greek one? Oooooh! Rampant! |
(b) a police station, esp. its cells.
| (con. WWI) Soldier and Sailor Words 166: Nick, The: The guard-room. Cells. | |
| Travels of Tramp-Royal 108: So we went over to the Nick, right into the charge-room. | |
| Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 7: Nick: Police station. | |
| Und. Nights 175: Pulled in on sus, and returned to the Oxford nick down by the station. | |
| (con. 1920s) Burglar to the Nobility 27: He couldn’t [...] buy himself a Racing Pink without being asked to come to the nick and account for where he got it. | |
| You Flash Bastard 66: The swap was made, and the solicitor walked out of the nick with the two sets of as near-perfect plates as Sneed had seen. | |
| ‘You Need Hands’ Minder [TV script] 54: Traditional, modest local nick. Jack Warner ought to be standing under the lamp. | |
| Happy Like Murderers 68: [They] cautioned him and took him for questioning down to Gloucester Central nick. | |
| Guardian G2 19 Jan. 5: His stern dad immediately dragged him down to the local nick. | |
| Killing Pool 285: Shakespeare calling [...] telling me he’s heading for Allerton nick. | |
| Class Act [ebook] ‘I don’t feel like hanging around an empty nick’. |
(c) the police.
| Scarperer (1966) 65: An approaching car caught his attention and he [...] put his head in the doorway of the Shaky Man’s and shouted hoarsely: ‘Nick nick give the nick there the squad leave a drink for me there one of yous God bless you’. |
(d) an arrest.
| Guardian 4 Apr. n.p.: Even if only for traffic offences, the police keep a heavy hand on the Rockers. ‘We think they’re a little bit prejudiced [...] You practically never get a Mod coming into work and saying he’s had a nick’. | |
| ‘The Russians are Coming’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Good, ’cos Wayne here’s looking for his first nick. |
(e) an institutional home.
| ‘Senior Citizen Caine’ Minder [TV script] 36: Terry, I do not intend to spend the rest of my days banged up in some geriatric nick. |
3. attrib. use of sense (a), pertaining to prison.
| Frying-Pan 18: The main change in me has been getting out of the nick culture. |
In phrases
taking into custody, arresting.
| ‘’Arry on the Ice’ in Punch 23 Feb. 85: The crushers was soon on the nick. |