Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to win at gambling, orig. dice or cards (esp. by cheating).

1549		T. Chaloner (trans.) Erasmus Praise of Folie (1509) 55: [Y]et sooner will they begyle theyr owne brother, than hym that nycked theim of theyr money, lest els perchaunce they might be counted foule gamesters.
1560		Nice Wanton B1: Do ye nycke us be knaue your noly, [...] Take the dice Dalila, cast on.
1674		C. Cotton Compleat Gamester 8: If they nick you, ’tis theirs; if they lose they owe you so much.
1697		Cibber Woman’s Wit I i: I very fairly nick’d him of Five Hundred upon the Square.
1700		N. Ward London Spy XV 356: Sent up to Town, as thousands were before, / To Nick and Froth, and learn the Double Score.
1732		Fielding Lottery 7: If I can but nick this time, Ame’s-Ace, I defy thee.
1760		Foote The Minor 53: Slam me, but he has nick’d the chance.
1773		O. Goldsmith She Stoops to Conquer Act III: My old luck: I never nicked seven that I did not throw ames ace three times following.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Nick, to nick, to win at dice.
1800		Sporting Mag. Oct. XVII 41/2: Cry, ‘Seven’s the main! What odds that I don’t nick?’.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1833		Satirist (London) 10 Feb. 469/1: ‘[T]ell me why the sovereign I nicked out of you last night while playing at whist was equal in value to a guinea’.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1880		E.J. Milliken ‘Cad’s Calendar’ Punch Almanack n.p.: At july just nicked a handy fiver, / (Twenty-five to one on old ‘Screwdriver’!) [F&H].
1961		R.S. Close With Hooves of Brass 142: Preacher sure had the luck of the Devil lately. Maybe with a quick couple of games she could nick back a bit of it.
1970		F. Collymore Notes for Gloss. of Barbadian Dial. 79: Nick. To throw dice.

2. to catch, take unawares.

1630		J. Taylor ‘Great Eater of Kent’ in Hindley Works (1872) 8: Tapsters cannot nick this Nick with froth, curtal cans [...] and double-dealing bumbasted jugs.
1674		Jackson’s Recantation in C. Hindley Old Bk Collector’s Misc. 14: He [...] made me so proficient at it [i.e. cheating], that I could nick the nicker sometimes.
1686		Behn Lucky Chance I iii: Wise old men must nick their inclinations, for it is not as ’twas wont to be.
1693		Congreve Old Bachelor I i: Ay, there you’ve nicked it.
1749		Fielding Tom Jones (1959) 223: Thinks I to myself. I’ll nick you there, old cull; the devil a smack of your nonsense shall you ever get into me.
1772		Foote Nabob in Works (1799) II 298: He nick’d me be desiring only just leave to scratch the poll of the parrot.
1784		J. O’Keeffe Fontainebleau in Dramatic Works (1798) II 276: [He] has nick’d me, that have nicked thousands.
1797		Bridges Burlesque Homer (4th edn) II 213: If Nestor can’t the Trojans nick / By some old square-toe’d slipp’ry trick.
c.1810		‘The Exciseman Outwitted’ in Holloway & Black (1979) II 98: Damme, I’ve nicked you, ’tis useless to curse.
1822		(con. early 17C) W. Scott Fortunes of Nigel II 306: If honest Jack Hildebrod puts you not in the way of nicking them all, may he never cast doublets, or dull a greenhorn again!
1841		Lytton Night and Morning II 298: I must be off – tempus fugit, and I must arrive just in time to nick the vessels.
1887		‘’Arry on His Critics’ Punch 17 Dec. 280/2: ’Owsomever in one thing you’ve nicked me. No marriage for ’Arry, sez you. / O, right you are, chummie.
1892		E.J. Milliken ’Arry Ballads 23: That nicked ’er, my nibs.
1902		S.E. White Blazed Trail 44: He would have made a good boss [...] He’s a hard man to nick.
1934		B. Appel Brain Guy (1937) 86: I’m paying for this. Last night nicked you for plenty.
1956		‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 115: By Gad I’m nicked.
1967		N. Dunn Poor Cow 101: I might come up on the offchance then I might nick you cheating ha ha.

3. (UK Und., also do a nick, nick for) to rob, to steal.

1617		Fletcher Mad Lover I i: You men of wares, the men of wars will nick ye: For starve nor beg they must not.
1676		Wycherley Plain-Dealer Act III: I ventur’d my last stake upon the Squire to nick him of his Mother.
1680		M. Stevenson Wits Paraphras’d 128: In that Abyss the Fates have Engines / For to revenge you with a Vengeance. / There all your Mains Chance often Nicks, / To pay at last for all your tricks.
1697		Cibber Womans Wit I i: maj.: Well! I must forgive you then! humh! y.ra.: I knew you wou’d, or else I had ne’er nick’d you.
1727		J. Gay Beggar’s Opera II iv: She riveted a Linnen-draper’s Eye so fast upon her, that he was nick’d of three Pieces of Cambric before he could look off.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 480: Thus thieves that wait the time to nick / When they can best your pockets pick.
1797		M. Robinson Walsingham IV 279: Topas nicked the family plate, and has lumped it by this time.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 125: ‘To nick’ [...] means ‘to cheat’ — of money, of chattels, or of life.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 61: By gar, sare, I no neek him! Ven I do a job, I do it up! I no botch him in zis way – I no neek him.
1849		Bell’s Life in Sydney 3 Feb. 3/2: Murphy pleaded it was a case of agency, and confessed having nicked Mrs. Napthali on the ready.
1866		J. Greenwood Night in a Workhouse 20: There used to be spoons at all the houses, one time. Poplar used to have ’em; but one at a time they was all nicked, don’t you know.
1879		London Life 14 June 5/2: [S]he [i.e. a relation in service] used to send me meat, sugar, coffee, linen, which she ‘nicked’ from her people.
1887		Cumberland Mercury (NSW) 30 Nov. 2/2: [A]nyone named Nick-all should not be qualified to hold stakes.
1889		‘The Shah at Fleet Street’ Sporting Times 6 July n.p.: The well-known diamond aigrette, and the celebrated emerald were also left behind, to the intense disgust of the staff, who had calculated on nicking out a few stones from the former.
1889		Bowyer & Baker [perf. Jennie Hill] Thereby Hangs a Tale 🎵 Hullo! what-cher Ginger! don't I do it tall? / Bone side of a haddick, nicked it off a stall.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 10 Mar. 3/3: It’s well above the reach of ordinary men, but on this occasion someone had ‘nicked’ it [i.e. a cigar].
1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 24: First fing I ever nicked was pigeons.
1901		Truth (Sydney) 29 Sept. 7/3: Sometime when they nick a thimble, / Sneak a peter, or such thing, / They will part it to the pusher.
1903		Australasian (Melbourne) 13 June 34/1: ‘Why, blow me tight,’ says Burglar Bill, / ‘I’m honest, for I’ll stick / To honesty until I see / A chance to do a nick’.
1908		B. Fisher ‘A. Mutt’ [synd. strip] She must have nicked my bankroll. Pipe those new rags.
1910		B. Fisher Mutt & Jeff 19 Sept. [synd. strip] It is rumored [...] that his spouse nicked him for his change and then gave him the hook.
1912		Truth (Wellington) 6 Apr. 6/5: Marshall managed to nick a silver watch, valued at £2 10s.
1915		G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 366: We grifters had a damn good right to nick a front or peel a poke so long as Wall Street and Washington were picking everybody’s pockets.
1928		J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 23: I would go up to a keeper and engage him in conversation while I nicked his purse out of his pocket.
1931		P.J. Wolfson Bodies are Dust (2019) [ebook] [of a losing bookmaker] ‘I guess he got nicked plenty. Changed referee hit a lot of guys heavy’.
1939		R. Chandler Big Sleep 162: Five grand worth [...] He nicked them for that a while back.
1943		J. Phelan Letters from the Big House 14: A-doing nine million years for a-nickin’ of the crahn jools.
1959		F. Norman Fings I i: ’E nicked it orf a barrer, I saw ’im.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 26: Ten quid nicked out of Ma’s housekeeping.
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 126: Never left him alone she didn’t till he nicked it.
1978		A. Burgess 1985 (1980) 142: ‘Thieving?’ ‘We don’t like that word. We prefer euphemisms like nicking, knocking off, finding, scrounging.’.
1981		J. Wambaugh Glitter Dome (1982) 15: Wing sidled by, nicking two quarters with utter impunity.
1989		Beano Comic Library No. 176 20: We’ll wait till it’s dark – then nick it.
1986		R.G. Barrett Godson 26: ‘I nicked them’ [i.e. consignments of drugs].
1998		Indep. on Sun. 26 July 27: Being resourceful Nineties kids, they nick the dentist’s credit cards instead.
1999		D. Looser ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 33: nick v. 1. Toa steal.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 124/1: nick v. 1 to steal.
2005		B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 9: It’s obvious you’ve nicked it.
2007		L. Redhead Cherry Pie [ebook] Three glasses that looked like they’d been nicked from the pub.
2010		K. Richards Life 81: He wouldn’t nick records.
2016		A. Wheatle Crongton Knights 67: ‘Simon’s been arrested’ [...] ‘Was he nicking again?’ .
2017		L. McInerney Blood Miracles : ‘You nicked those pills’.
2018		G. Gilmore Base Nature [ebook] ‘Got to nick it before you can sell it’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 815: [K]ids nicking clothes ... some bloke even took a widescreen.

4. to cheat, to swindle.

1576		G. Whetstone ‘Ortchard of Repentance’ in Rocke of Regard 191: I neuer nickt the poorest of his pay, But if hee lackt, hee had before his day.
1768		A. Ross Helenore in Wattie Scot. Works (1938) 40: ‘I think,’ quo aunt, ‘ye’re fairly nicked now.’.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 246: When my landlord does not nick me [...] But very fairly fills it full, I just can swigg it at one pull.
1817		W. Scott Rob Roy (1883) 77: The polite and accomplished adventurer, who nicked you out of your money at White’s.
1834		Satirist (London) 5 Feb. 7/1: ‘[M]y friend the captain’ [...] was nothing more than what is vulgarly called a ‘picker-up’ [and] has doubtless immortalised himself by his address in nick-ing such a pigeon.
1886		‘’Arry on ’Ome Rule’ Punch 17 July in P. Marks (2006) 122: The Sawnies and Tykes may be nicked by his bosh.
1890		Academy 22 Feb. 125/1: In the expectation of an early visit from the delightful mimic, she for four mornings was up at seven o’clock, only to find herself, borrowing the slang phrases of the day, ‘choused’, for he nick’d us entirely, and never came at all’ [F&H].
1905		F. Hutchison Philosophy of Johnny the Gent 49: ‘I navigated around [...] fer about an hour lookin’ fer a cab driver I knew so that I wouldn’t get nicked’.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 26: The first of those years we nicked the builders, the second the visitors.
1938		E. Hoffman Price ‘Revolt of the Damned’ Double-Action Gang June 🌐 Nothing wrong, nicking Uncle Sam out of customs duties he had no right to, anyway.
1956		J. Thompson ‘The Cellini Chalice’ Fireworks (1988) 74: The girl had that grand she’d nicked him for.

5. to comprehend.

1702		Cibber She Would and She Would Not III i: vil.: What do you suppose would make me otherwise? d.ma.: Money. vil.: You have nick’t it.
1821		W.T. Moncrieff Tom and Jerry I iv: You’ve nick’d it: the fact is this, Dicky – you must turn missionary.
1877		J. Greenwood Dick Temple II 261: Now you’ve nicked the core of the whole thing.

6. to apprehend, to arrest; thus nicked adj.¹

1759		J. Townley High Life Below Stairs II i: You have just nick’d them in the very Minute.
1796		J.G. Holman Abroad and At Home II iii: He had nicked his man, and accosted me accordingly.
1836		Marryat Japhet 225: That is the other fellow who attacked me, and ran away. He has come to get off his accomplice, and now we’ve just nicked them both.
1837		‘Public Life of Mr. Tulrumble’ Bentley’s Misc. Jan. 61: They’d nick him.
1841		Flash (NY) 26 Sept. n.p.: One of your New York pickpockets was nicked at the Chestnut last night.
1908		K. McGaffey Sorrows of a Show Girl Ch. xvi: The nerve of that guy thinking he could pinch me. I’ll have you know that I am only nicked by the best cops on Broadway.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 134: Nick.– [...] to arrest.
1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 70: If they nick a bloke for us we never hear the last of it and there’s supposed to be solidarity and team-work among policemen.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 145/1: Nick, v. 1. (Briticism, heard rarely in American coastal cities) To arrest; to commit to jail or prison.
1960		C. MacInnes Mr Love and Justice (1964) 161: But, sir ... who nicked her?
1989		(con. 1950s–60s) G. Tremlett Little Legs 37: They’ll never nick me for it now.
1998		J. Hoskison Inside 32: Cossers are desperate to nick ’im, surveillance, the lot.
1999		D. Looser ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 33: nick v. 2. To arrest.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 124/1: nick v. 2 to arrest.
2006		G. Malkani Londonstani (2007) 128: The police are looking for any excuse to nick you.
2014		K. Koke ‘Letter Home’ 🎵 Police come, and nicked me for attempted murder.
2021		Breen & Conlon Hitmen 230: ‘You’re going to get us fucking nicked [...] wake fucking up’.
2021		Central Cee ‘Day in the Life’ 🎵 Little bro got nicked two times this week.

7. in fig. use of sense 1, to win other than in gambling.

1772		G. Stevens ‘The Sentiment Song’ Songs Comic and Satyrical 62: And he must have luck, to be sure, who throws in, / ’Tis the statesman who sets, his friends nick their places.
1860		Poughkeepsie Jrnl (NY) 5 May 1/6: The colonel thought he had nicked ould Nick at last, and wint to bed quite asy in his mind.

8. to appeal to, to capture one’s interest.

1889

‘’Arry on Chivalry’ Punch 20 July 177: Poets don’t nick me, nohow.

9. (orig. US) to demand, to beg.

1878		A. Pinkerton Strikers 54: He will then immediately edge around the boys and ‘nick the office.’ ‘Nicking’ the office consists in begging [...] for nickels, or any other loose change.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 55: Nick him for the paltriest sum and he lets out a squawk you can hear at Land’s End.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 163: nick To make a touch.
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 64: Gorringe was trying to nick me for a thousand quid.
1960		Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 5: He grudges every penny the Government nicks him for.
1963		H.S. Thompson letter 15 Aug. in Proud Highway (1997) 386: A great relief to hear you nicked Ridley for money.

10. to earn, the implication is of undeservedly.

1904

Sun. Times (Perth) 13 Mar. 8/2: When Melba was mopping up boodle in this country it was freely stated in every paper (each one different) what she was nicking out of her Aus. tour.

11. a weak use of the senses of to rob and to cheat above, to charge, with implication of excessive price.

1912		Van Loan ‘Loosening Up of Hogan’ in Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm 155: Ain’t that the place where they nick you eighty cents a platter for soup?
1914		A. Brazil Leader of the Lower School 130: I'll take care of Gipsy [...] make it easy for her, but I’ll nick in Leonora for more than she bargains.
1933		‘Paul Cain’ ‘One, Two, Three’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2006) 15: The doctor nicked me two-fifty.
1953		E. Wilson Look Who’s Abroad Now 4: We each got nicked a shilling—fourteen cents—to get in.

12. to deprive of, to cost.

1942

R.L. Bellem ‘Malibu Mess’ in Dan Turner – Hollywood Detective Dec. 🌐 His spectacular escapades had nicked this older brother of his for copious hunks of geetus—although Harlow never seemed to balk when it came to paying the piper.

13. (US) to find fault with someone.

1979

T. Alibrandi Custody 283: Whenever Sabina starts nicking at you because she doesn’t feel good about herself [...] I want you, mentally, to turn offf your hearing aid.

14. (UK Und.) to seduce.

2011

J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 87: Could never nick a bird. If Kevin the Cab fell in a barrel of tits he’d climb out sucking his thumb.