NICKEL

nickel

(noun) a United States coin worth one twentieth of a dollar

nickel, nickel note

(noun) five dollars worth of a drug; ā€œa nickel bag of drugsā€; ā€œa nickel deck of heroinā€

nickel, Ni, atomic number

(noun) a hard malleable ductile silvery metallic element that is resistant to corrosion; used in alloys; occurs in pentlandite and smaltite and garnierite and millerite

nickel

(verb) plate with nickel; ā€œnickel the plateā€

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Noun

nickel (countable and uncountable, plural nickels)

(uncountable) A silvery elemental metal with an atomic number of 28 and symbol Ni.

(US, Canada, countable) A coin worth 5 cents.

(US, slang, by extension) Five dollars.

(US, slang, by extension) Five hundred dollars.

(US, slang, sometimes the nickel or the hot nickel) Interstate 5, a highway that runs along the west coast of the United States.

(slang) A playing card with the rank of five

(US, slang) A five-year prison sentence.

(American football) A defensive formation with five defensive backs, one of whom is a nickelback, instead of the more common four.

Verb

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

(transitive) To plate with nickel.

Anagrams

• Nickle, inleck

Etymology

Proper noun

Nickel

A patronymic surname.

Anagrams

• Nickle, inleck

Source: Wiktionary


Nick"el, n. Etym: [G., fr. Sw. nickel, abbrev. from Sw. kopparnickel copper-nickel, a name given in derision, as it was thought to be a base ore of copper. The origin of the second part of the word is uncertain. Cf. Kupfer-nickel, Copper-nickel.]

1. (Chem.)

Definition: A bright silver-white metallic element. It is of the iron group, and is hard, malleable, and ductile. It occurs combined with sulphur in millerite, with arsenic in the mineral niccolite, and with arsenic and sulphur in nickel glance. Symbol Ni. Atomic weight 58.6.

Note: On account of its permanence in air and inertness to oxidation, it is used in the smaller coins, for plating iron, brass, etc., for chemical apparatus, and in certain alloys, as german silver. It is magnetic, and is very frequently accompanied by cobalt, both being found in meteoric iron.

2. A small coin made of or containing nickel; esp., a five-cent piece. [Colloq. U.S.] Nickel silver, an alloy of nickel, copper, and zinc; -- usually called german silver; called also argentan.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

29 March 2025

THOUGHTLESS

(adjective) without care or thought for others; ā€œthe thoughtless saying of a great princess on being informed that the people had no bread; ā€˜Let them eat cakeā€™ā€


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Coffee Trivia

International Coffee Day (September 29) is an occasion to promote and celebrate coffee as a beverage, with events occurring in places across the world. A day to promote fair trade coffee and raise awareness for the coffee growersā€™ plight. Other countries celebrate this event on October 1.

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