nickel

Borrowed from German Nickel, first used in a text by the Swedish mineralogist Axel F. Cronstedt as an abbreviation of Kupfernickel (“a mineral containing copper and nickel”), from Kupfer (“copper”) + Nickel (“insignificant person, goblin”), originally nickname of Nikolaus (“Nicholas”), due to the deceptive silver colour of the relatively valueless ore. Compare cobalt as related to kobolds.

• enPR: nĭk'əl, IPA^(key): /ˈnɪk.əl/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɪkəl

nickel (countable and uncountable, plural nickels)

1. (uncountable) A silvery elemental metal with an atomic number of 28 and symbol Ni.
2. (US, Canada, countable) A coin worth 5 cents.

   Coordinate term: dime

   • 2017 October 8, “Confederacy”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 4, episode 26, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:

     That is just objectively terrifying regardless of contexts! He looks like if a nickel did cocaine!

3. (US, slang, by extension) Five dollars.
4. (US, slang, by extension) Five hundred dollars.
5. (US, slang, sometimes the nickel or the hot nickel) Interstate 5, a highway that runs along the west coast of the United States.
6. (slang) A playing card with the rank of five
7. (US, slang) A five-year prison sentence.
8. (American football) A defensive formation with five defensive backs, one of whom is a nickelback, instead of the more common four.
9. (UK, World War II) An airborne propaganda leaflet.
   • 1945, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 217, Curtis Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 79:

     Colonel Hazeltine still had trouble persuading air commanders to drop the nickels. Pilots profanely protested against risking their necks on such foolishness. But in the end 15,000,000 leaflets a week were being dropped on Sicily and Italy.

   • 1948, The Army Air Forces in World War II, volume 3, Office of Air Force History, →ISBN, page 495:

     Many types of nickels were used in psychological warfare. Classified according to general purpose, there were strategic and tactical leaflets.

   • 2010, Richard H. Kraemer, The Secret War in the Balkans, Author House, →ISBN, page 136:

     Nickels, the code-name for propaganda leaflets, were ordinary 8-1/2×11" sheets of paper either printed on both sides or folded in half and printed on all four sides. […] On most of our flights, after leaving the DZ or landing strip we distributed 150 to 450 pounds of nickels over designated areas, and a few of our missions were nickel runs only.

• kupfernickel
• niccolite
• nife
• nitinol

nickel (not comparable)

1. (US, idiomatic, somewhat dated) Synonym of cheap: Low price and/or low value.

   Let me give you the nickel tour of the office.

nickel (third-person singular simple present nickels, present participle nickeling or nickelling, simple past and past participle nickeled or nickelled)

1. (transitive) To plate with nickel.
2. (UK, World War II) To distribute airborne leaflet propaganda.
   • 1948, The Army Air Forces in World War II, volume 3, Office of Air Force History, →ISBN, pages 496–497:

     The 422d Bombardment Squadron extended the scope of its operations considerably in April and "attacked" Norwegian targets with the leaflet bomb. The number of cities nickeled per mission also increased until it was common for fifteen to twenty-five to be scheduled as targets for a five-plane mission.

   • 1966, Monro MacCloskey, Secret Air Missions, R. Rosen Press, →OCLC, page 36:

     We flew numerous nickeling missions over the population centers of Southern France, dropping thousands of pounds of leaflets.

   • 2010, Richard H. Kraemer, The Secret War in the Balkans, Author House, →ISBN, page 136:

     From southern Greece to northern Italy, nickeling supplied both occupied peoples and their occupiers with fairly frequent and generally accurate reports of the war — in many cases, their only authoritative source of information.

• false copper
• garnierite
• nickelling
• pentlandite

• Weisenberg, Michael (2000) The Official Dictionary of Poker. MGI/Mike Caro University. →ISBN

• Nickle, inleck, nickle

• IPA^(key): /ni.kɛl/

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nickel m (countable and uncountable, plural nickels)

1. (usually uncountable) nickel (metal)
2. (countable) atom of nickel

• nickelage
• nickeler

nickel (invariable)

1. (slang) spotless
   • 2016, Marie Kostrz, “Olga, architecte, proprio et loueuse occasionnelle, 1235 euros par mois”, in L'Obs‎:

     Le lieu doit toujours être nickel, ce qui veut dire beaucoup de ménage.

     The place has always has to be spotless, which means a lot of cleaning.

2. (slang) perfect, bang on

• nickellement

• “nickel”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• Audio

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nickel n

1. nickel; a chemical element
2. a coin of small, but undetermined value

   Jag har inte en/ett nickel.

   I don't have a nickel

• (coin): inte ett nickel

• nickel in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)