Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a ship’s purser.

1781		‘Bill Bobstay’ in Bullfinch 216: There’s Nipcheese the purser, by grinding and squeeziung, / First plund’ring, then leaving the ship like a rat.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: nip-cheese a nick name for the purser of a ship, from those gentlemen being supposed sometimes to nip, or diminish the allowance of the seamen, in that and every other article. It is also applied to stingy persons in general.
1805		J. Davis Post Captain (1813) 9: Does the Doctor eat his allowance, Mr Nipcheese?
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1829		W.N. Glascock Sailors & Saints I 19: In my time, Nipcheese qould have it considered it as good as a re-capture to have had such an opportunity.
1834		Marryat Jacob Faithful II 60: It’s some of old Nipcheese’s eighths, that he has sent on shore to bowse his jib up with.
1842		Marryat Percival Keene 167: That’s our nipcheese [...] nipcheese means purser of the ship.
1850		(con. 1843) Melville White-Jacket (1990) 209: Among sailors, also, pursers commonly go by the name of nip-cheeses.
1867		W.H. Smyth Sailor’s Word-Bk (1991) 497: Nipcheese. The sailor’s name for a purser’s steward.
1879		Lancaster Gaz. 31 May 3/3: Nipcheese (the purser).
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1930		Nottingham Post 26 Apr. 6/2: In the old days the Purser was known as ‘Mr Nipcheese,’ and was reputed to be the only person who could ‘Make a dead man chew’ [by] retaining the names of dead and ‘run’ men [...] in order to draw their victuals and pay.
1931		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 25 May 8/6: Among sailors the purser is nicknamed ‘Nipcheese.’ The word means a miser.

2. in attrib. use of sense 1.

1818		Chester Courant 28 July4/2: She [...] measures out the provisions like a nipcheese purser.
1831		Morn. Post 19 Jan. 3/2: I shall not be surprised is Hume or some other economist should [...] report what shall be the rations proper [...] and how many banyan days there shall be in a week. A sailor would call this a Nip-cheese committee.

3. a grocer.

1874

‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter I 16: [H]e was always foremost in taking a rise out of ‘young nip-cheese,’ as he called him.

4. a mean, miserly person.

1785, 1788, 1796		see sense 1.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1853		R.S. Surtees Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 139: Jack Spraggon, living at old Mother Nipcheese’s lodgings.
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1931		see sense 1 .

5. in attrib. use of sense 2.

1860		Hereford Times 8 Sept. 9/2: This ‘nipcheese’ economy is not only a mistake and a delusion.
1903		Dundee Courier 25 Mar. 5/3: See what a flint, nip-cheese, curmudgeonly Government this is.