Green’s Dictionary of Slang

nickel n.

[SAmE nickel, a five-cent coin]

1. (US) a $5 bill, $5.

implied in nickel note
[US]M.A. Crane ‘Misc.’ in AS XXXIII:3 225: A penny is a dollar, a nickel is five dollars and so on.
[US] ‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2.
[US]G. Cain Blueschild Baby 19: ‘Do me a favor? Let me cop two bags for a nickel’.
[US]Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 112: He thinks about cutting the order. Maybe shave off a nickel [...] It would be nothing to keep five and find a hookup with some other short money.

2. a very small amount (not monetary); e.g. not like it a nickel.

[US]A. Bontemps God Sends Sun. 197: I’s jes’ a po’ picked sparrow. I ain’t as big as a dime, an’ I don’t worth a nickel.
[US]R. Chandler Farewell, My Lovely (1949) 226: If somebody did leave it open, the boss won’t like it a nickel.

3. (US prison) a five-year prison sentence.

[US]‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 44: He talked complacently about his ‘nickel’ in Lexington.
[US]Rigney & Smith Real Bohemia 170: For even a con staring a nickel (five years in prison) in the face, this was the hardest time of all.
[US](con. 1920s) J. Brown Monkey Off My Back (1972) 36: My very first conviction cost me a ‘nickel’ — five years in Leavenworth Federal Pen.
[US]C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 23: Traviola did a nickel for extortion, got out of Rahway about two years ago.
[US]E. Bunker Mr Blue 234: At twenty-two I’d graduated with honours after a nickel in San Quentin.
[US]G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 108: We get searched, that’s an automatic nickel for me.
[US]J. Stahl ‘Pure’ in Love Without 161: He got sentenced to a nickel in Quentin.
[US] N. Flexner Disassembled Man [ebook] I was convicted of first-degree assault. I served a nickel’s worth.
[US]S.M. Jones Lives Laid Away [ebook] ‘He just did a nickel [...] for extortion’.
[US]S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 17: I did a nickel at Red Onion.

4. (US) $500, esp. in gambling.

[US]Babs Gonzales ‘Manhattan Fable’ 🎵 Eddie laid his grand on Nab, who [...] split the bread down, a nickel note for him and a nickel note for his buddy.
[US]G. Mayer Bookie 256: Nickel: $500.
[UK]A. Alvarez Biggest Game 3: In gambling parlance, a nickel is $500.

5. (US drugs) a $5 packet of marijuana, heroin or cocaine.

[US]Rigney & Smith Real Bohemia xx: The purchases are made in cash: an ace ($1), deuce, trey, nickel ($5).
[US]G. Scott-Heron Vulture (1996) 12: ‘You got trey bags?’ I asked. ‘Treys an’ nickels.’.
[US]D.E. Miller Bk of Jargon 343: nickel [...]: A package of five dollars’ worth of a drug.
[US](con. 1985–90) P. Bourjois In Search of Respect 3: The most visible cohorts hawk ‘nickels and dimes’ of one illegal drug or another.

6. (US und.) $50.

[US](con. 1963) L. Berney November Road 39: ‘How much for the .22?’ Barone said. ‘Cost me a nickel more than the last one did’.

7. (US) the number five.

[US]L. Dills CB Slanguage 72: Nickel Channel: Channel 5.

8. (US) the general name for the skid row n. (1) area of downtown Los Angeles that is focused on East Fifth Street.

[US]F.X. Toole Rope Burns 148: We was over on East Fifth Street there on Skid Row there in the middle of the Nickel.

In compounds

SE in slang uses

In compounds

nickel-assed (adj.)

second-rate, petty.

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 .
nickel dump (n.) [dump n.3 (2); derog. synon. of SE nickelodeon]

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

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.
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.
nickel grabber (n.)

1. an insignificant person.

[US]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 .

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

(US) a miser, a ‘penny-pincher’.

[US]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.
nickel hop (n.) [hop n.1 (4); although the women worked for 10 cents or ‘a dime a dance’ they split this half and half with the management]

(US) a taxi-dance.

[US]A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks.
nickel-hopper (n.)

(US) a taxi-dancer.

[movie title] The Nickel-Hopper.
[US] (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.
nickel nurser (n.) [lit. one who ‘has a passion for seeing that his nickels don’t stray’ (Maines & Grant, The Wise-Crack Dict., 1926)]

(US) a miser.

[US]T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 59: Nickel nursers with hand cuffs, fishhooks and boxing gloves waiting for someone to buy.
[US]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.
[US](con. 1899) H.P. Bailey Shanghaied Out of Frisco 58: Guess the old nickel-nurser is playing hee-fee-fi-fo-fum himself.
[US]F. Willard ‘Moon Mullins’ [comic strip] After me gettin’ all wet savin’ that old nickel-nurser from a watery grave.
[US]Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 135: Nickel Nurser. – A stingy individual, one who nurses his funds.
[US] ‘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.
[US]W.L. Gresham Nightmare Alley (1947) 283: McGraw’s a hard cookie, but he ain’t a nickel-nurser.
[US]Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 809: nickel nurser – A stingy individual, one who nurses his funds.
[US](con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad.
nickel-plated (adj.) [paradoxically opposite to nickel plate ; ? var. on SE gold-plated]

(US) first-class, thorough.

[UK]Puck (N.Y.) 22 Apr. 15: You are a nickel-plated prophet with a silver tip [HDAS].
[UK]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.
[US]‘O. Henry’ ‘The Voice of the City’ in Voice of the City (1915) 5: But I was adamant, nickel-plated.
[US]C. McFadden Serial 61: She was still confusing being a liberated woman with being a nickel-plated bitch.
nickel-slick (adj.) [slick adj. (1); the low value of the coin undermines the slickness]

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

[US]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?
nickel snatcher (n.) (also nickel chaser, ...grabber)

(US) a streetcar conductor.

[US]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.
[US]Daily Jrnl (Salem, OR) 28 Mar. 2/3: The nickel-grabber alone will work.
[US]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?
[US]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.
[US]J.T. Farrell Gas-House McGinty 81: Why the hell were all these nickel-snatchers on the street-cars so dumb!
[US]F.H. Hubbard Railroad Avenue 353: Nickel Grabber – Streetcar conductor.
nickel squeezer (n.)

(US) a mean, miserly person.

[[US]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’].
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.
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.
[US]A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks.
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?
[US]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.
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.
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.
Variety Film Rev. 1 n.p.: Tbe nickel-squeezer Is asked for $2,500, but only comes through with $25.

In phrases

don’t take any wooden nickels (also ...rubber nickels, ...wooden money)

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

[US]S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 58: Don’t take any wooden money, Paulibus!
[US]W. Edge Main Stem 118: Well, Jack, don’t take any wooden nickels tonight.
[US](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).
[US]Jimmy Lunceford & His Orchestra [song title] ’Tain’t Good (Like a Nickel Made of Wood).
[US]W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 398: Bye, Pop. Don’t take any wooden nickels.
[US](con. 1943–5) A. Murphy To Hell and Back (1950) 136: Well, don’t take any wooden nickels.
[US]E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 250: Don’t take any wooden nickels.
have a nickel in that dime (v.) [i.e. to invest 5 cents (a nickel) in a larger investment of 10 cents (a dime)]

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

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.
on one’s nickel

(US) at one’s own expense.

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.
[US]J. Stahl I, Fatty 176: I don’t want any bootleg orgies on my nickel, okay?