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nicker

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nicker¹

  • /ˈnɪkə(ɹ)/

Sounds like knicker, nikka (non-rhotic) · Rhymes with -ɪkə(ɹ)

noun nicker

  1. UK, slang Pound sterling. This coat cost me 50 nicker.

    Similar: pound, pound sterling, quid, sov

nicker²

  • /ˈnɪkə(ɹ)/

Sounds like knicker, nikka (non-rhotic) · Rhymes with -ɪkə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

Imitative; from 1774.

noun nickers

  1. A soft neighing sound characteristic of a horse.
  2. A snigger or suppressed laugh.

verb nickers · nickering · nickered · nicher · nigher

  1. To make a soft neighing sound characteristic of a horse. Behind him, old Akthoob was grumbling loudly, saying something about the midday meal, and Haral, the black Feridoon pony, snuffing in the old, familiar scent of the green meadows of the Chaya's banks, the warm sweet smells of home, was nickering eagerly.
  2. To produce a snigger or suppressed laugh.

nicker³

  • /ˈnɪkə(ɹ)/

Sounds like knicker, nikka (non-rhotic) · Rhymes with -ɪkə(ɹ)

noun nickers

  1. obsolete, slang One of the night brawlers of London formerly noted for breaking windows with halfpence. 1713-1714, John Arbuthnot, Memoirs of Martin Scriblerus your modern musicians want art to defend their windows from common nickers
  2. The cutting lip which projects downward at the edge of a boring bit and cuts a circular groove in the wood to limit the size of the hole that is bored.
  3. informal Someone who nicks (steals) something, a thief. He […] was far more interested in the fact that I was a car thief and an expert driver than that I was a bandit. […] Car nicker, are you?

verb nickers · nickering · nickered

  1. UK, informal To snatch or steal.

nicker⁴

  • /ˈnɪkə(ɹ)/

Sounds like knicker, nikka (non-rhotic) · Rhymes with -ɪkə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

From Middle English niker, from Old English nicor, from Proto-Germanic *nikraz. Cognate with German Nix (“water demon”) and German Nixe (“female water-spirit”); also related to Old Norse nykr (“water demon”) (see there for further descendants). Doublet of nix.

noun nickers · nikker

  1. A type of mythological sea creature or sea monster; also, a water sprite; a nix or nixie; a mermaid or merman. And in another tale, told at Kemnitz of the Nicker, as he is there called, when he asks the midwife how much he owes her, she answers that she will take no more from him than from other people.
  2. Hippopotamus.

nicker⁵

  • /ˈnɪkə(ɹ)/

Sounds like knicker, nikka (non-rhotic) · Rhymes with -ɪkə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

Mispronunciation of nigger.

noun nickers

  1. derogatory, ethnic, euphemistic, offensive, slur, vulgar nigger.

Translations

Every language

verb to neigh softly

Portuguêsrelinchar
Русскийржа́ть ržátʹ

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MLA

"nicker." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/nicker. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

nicker. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/nicker

Chicago

"nicker." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/nicker.

BibTeX
@misc{nicker_2026,
  title = {nicker},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/nicker},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}