Meaning

A small cut in a surface..

Definitions by Sense

1. A small cut in a surface.
2. Senses connoting something small.
3. (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, colloquial) Often in the expressions in bad nick and in good nick: condition, state.
4. (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, law enforcement, slang) A police station or prison.
5. (transitive) To make a nick or notch in; to cut or scratch in a minor way.
6. (transitive, obsolete) To fit into or suit, as by a correspondence of nicks; to tally with.
7. (transitive, mining) To make a cut at the side of the face.
8. (transitive, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, colloquial) To steal.

Example Sentences

The car I bought was cheap and in good nick.

[F]urther south in Kent, there was St. Mildred, whose mother [Domne Eafe], in 670, founded the minster that still stands there in good nick, with nine nuns who are an ever-present help in trouble to all religions and none.

[…]considering they've abused their bodies with everything from M and G to crystal meth over the course of the last day or so, some longer, they look in pretty good nick.

More unexpectedly, older tech and hardware stocks seem in decent nick, Mr Ives notes.

He was arrested and taken down to Sun Hill nick [police station] to be charged.

He’s just been released from Shadwell nick [prison] after doing ten years for attempted murder.

I recall too that the chats in the back of the [police] van weren't too bad as they dispatched me to the nick.

Poor Billy, he got seven years and he died in the nick in Liverpool in January 1958. Tragedy, he was such a good man, the best. He had a big funeral back in Clerkenwell. Eva went to it. I was in the nick down south at the time.

Word Forms

• nicks
• nicking
• nicked

Synonyms for nick

Related Words

When Should You Use Nick?

Use nick when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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