Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(drugs) $5 worth of heroin.

2001

ONDCP Street Terms 15: Nickel deck — Heroin.

(US) a $5 bill.

1926		N. Klein ‘Hobo Lingo’ in AS I:12 652: Nickel note—five dollar paper bill.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 210: Nickel note – Five-dollar bill.
1944		‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.
1978		(con. WWII) T. Sanchez Hollywoodland (1981) 56: Fuss dug five dollars out of his pocket. ‘Here’s a nickel note.’.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 15: Nickel note — $5 bill.

second-rate, petty.

1965

toast cited by B. Jackson in Jrnl Amer. Folklore LXXVIII 325: I’m gettin’ tired a you fellas runnin’ round here doin’ these nickel-assed crimes .

see nickel snatcher

(US) a cheap cinema, charging only a nickel or 5 cents admission.

1959		R.P. Brooks ‘The Birth and Early Development of the Motion Picture’ in Bulletin of the Passaic County Historical Society Apr. 🌐 In Passaic County half a century ago, the words magic lantern, peep show, nickelodeon and the less elegant nickel dump were universally understood. Today (1959), these words are virtually unknown.
2002		J.M. Davis Circus Age Ch. 1 🌐 Like vaudeville, the chain store, the ‘cheap nickel dump,’ and the amusement park, the circus helped consolidate a shared national leisure culture at the turn of the century.

1. an insignificant person.

1953

R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 114: It’s run by a former colonel of military police. No nickel grabber, Doctor. He rates way up.

2. see nickel snatcher

3. a cheap attraction, e.g. a sideshow; also the operator .

1888		Salt Lake Herald (UT) 5 July 3/2: On the Park were to be seen ice cream stalls, Aunt Sallies and other ‘nickel grabbers’.
1894		Herald (Los Angeles) 25 Jan. 4: It has caused the arrest of a dozen offenders daily, but the nickel-grabbers are growing cautious.
1913		Tacoma Times (WA) 21 May 3/4: The ‘nickel grabber’ class of cheap concession will be barred.

(US) a miser, a ‘penny-pincher’.

1933

W.R. Burnett Dark Hazard (1934) 26: You never knew how you’d end up. He might be a nickel-grinder himself when he was fifty.

(US) a taxi-dance.

1935

A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks.

(US) a taxi-dancer.

1926		[movie title] The Nickel-Hopper.
1932		(ref. to 1910s) P.G. Cressey Taxi-Dance Hall 17: At the same time the taxi-dancer in Chicago, because her revenue from each separate dance had been fixed at five cents, was awarded the apt title ‘nickel-hopper’—a nickname that has remained with her until the present time.

(US) a miser.

1916		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 59: Nickel nursers with hand cuffs, fishhooks and boxing gloves waiting for someone to buy.
1917		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 12 Apr. [synd. col.] A famous nickel nurser trying to get a hat boy without tipping him.
1925		(con. 1899) H.P. Bailey Shanghaied Out of Frisco 58: Guess the old nickel-nurser is playing hee-fee-fi-fo-fum himself.
1928		F. Willard ‘Moon Mullins’ [comic strip] After me gettin’ all wet savin’ that old nickel-nurser from a watery grave.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 135: Nickel Nurser. – A stingy individual, one who nurses his funds.
c.1935		‘Mae West in “The Hip Flipper”’ [comic strip] in B. Adelman Tijuana Bibles (1997) 91: Fuzzy-Nuts, the old nickle-nurser [sic] who held the mortgage on the old home.
1946		W.L. Gresham Nightmare Alley (1947) 283: McGraw’s a hard cookie, but he ain’t a nickel-nurser.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 809: nickel nurser – A stingy individual, one who nurses his funds.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad.

(US) a fraud, a deception.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

(US) first-class, thorough.

1885		Puck (N.Y.) 22 Apr. 15: You are a nickel-plated prophet with a silver tip [HDAS].
1905		R. Beach Pardners (1912) 21: I don’t mean to say that he was grouchy at any time. No, sir! He was the nickel-plated sunbeam of the whole creek.
1908		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Voice of the City’ in Voice of the City (1915) 5: But I was adamant, nickel-plated.
1977		C. McFadden Serial 61: She was still confusing being a liberated woman with being a nickel-plated bitch.

(US) a second-rate, small-time criminal.

1950

Where the Sidewalk Ends [film script] Hoods, dusters, mugs — a lot of nickel rats.

(US black teen) a five-storey public housing building in the Fillmore area of San Francisco.

2003

A. Newitz ‘Bay Area Sl.’ on Berkeley University Amer. Studies 102 Course Website 🌐 Nickel Shot – A five story public housing building in the Fillmore of San Francisco.

(US black) petty, insignificant, esp. in the context of attempting to do something beyond one’s abilities (and thus failing in the effort).

1972

O. Hawkins Ghetto Sketches 17: How many times am I gon’ have to whip your jive, stinkin’ ass before you stop tryin’ to be nickel slick?

(US) a streetcar conductor.

1897		Kansas City Jrnl (MO) 7 Aug. 8/4: The veteran nickel-grabber smiled as he rung up a cash fare and proceeded to the next passenger.
1903		Daily Jrnl (Salem, OR) 28 Mar. 2/3: The nickel-grabber alone will work.
1909		Pensacola Jrnl (FL) 28 Aug. 5/4: Now, that’s what I call an unusual action on the party of a conductor [...] How’s that for Pensacola’s special brand of artistic nickel grabbers?
1919		C.E. Piesbergen Overseas with an Aero Squadron 66: ‘Zim-Zim’ was just as well off as when he was a nickel-chaser on the street cars of Toledo.
1933		J.T. Farrell Gas-House McGinty 81: Why the hell were all these nickel-snatchers on the street-cars so dumb!
1945		F.H. Hubbard Railroad Avenue 353: Nickel Grabber – Streetcar conductor.

(US) a mean, miserly person.

[1885		Iola Register (KS) 25 Dec. 6/2: Ol’ Balaam Topmuck [...] were the meanest of all the mean ol’ flippiny-bit squeezers th’ was in that deestric’].
1909		W. Johnston Canadian Melodies 31: We ain’t no nickel squeezers, boys, / When they pass around the hat. / If yer needs a little help, boys, / Don't be afeerd to ax.
1922		Amer. Seedsman 4 14: The buyers are predominatingly working people. They are sometimes referred to as ‘nickelsqueezers,’ because they are keen for every cent of saving.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks.
1946		Amer. Flint 35 63: He says that Fred Rippel is still the same old nickel squeezer. Take it out of the treasury; how about it, Fred?
1955		Amer. Mag. 159 60: The most accomplished nickel- squeezer of that era would never dream of trying to make a movie without a single background set, even if it were only a beat-up barroom.
1967		J. Klobuchar Zest & Best 136: Calvin Griffith is not a bad nor sinister person, and while his thrift is fun to josh, he is not an irredeemable nickel-squeezer.
1974		S. Abolin Professional Film-making 30: Your client could well be a nickel-squeezer of the ‘short arms, deep pockets’ variety who makes an art of not paying his bills.
1983		Variety Film Rev. 1 n.p.: Tbe nickel-squeezer Is asked for $2,500, but only comes through with $25.

(US) a cursory inspection, a once-cover.

2012

G. Flynn Gone Girl 340: He gives me the nickel tour, laughing at the idea of a nickel.

(orig. US) beware of being defrauded or hoaxed.

1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 58: Don’t take any wooden money, Paulibus!
1927		W. Edge Main Stem 118: Well, Jack, don’t take any wooden nickels tonight.
1936		(con. 1920s) Dos Passos Big Money in USA (1966) 751: Pokerface stories told sideways out of the big mouth (from Missouri who took no rubber nickels).
1936		Jimmy Lunceford & His Orchestra [song title] ’Tain’t Good (Like a Nickel Made of Wood).
1940		W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 398: Bye, Pop. Don’t take any wooden nickels.
1949		(con. 1943–5) A. Murphy To Hell and Back (1950) 136: Well, don’t take any wooden nickels.
1970		E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 250: Don’t take any wooden nickels.

(US black) to have an interest in a state of affairs.

2000

T. Hughes posting 29 Jun. on ‘oldtools’ at Yahoo! Groups 🌐 I figure life is to short to worry about other people or to put them down because they might not price or sell stuff the same as others do. That’s their business not mine, as my grandfather used to say...‘I don’t have a Nickel in that Dime’....Todd, who always tries to get along with everyone.

(US) at one’s own expense.

2002–2003		Hope Tarr HopeTarr.com 🌐 I will telephone any and all readers groups that select Tempting, My Lord Jack or A Rogue’s Pleasure as their book club pick and chat for up to 30 minutes—on my nickel.
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 176: I don’t want any bootleg orgies on my nickel, okay?