nick

verb

nicked; nicking; nicks

transitive verb

1

: to jot down : record

2

a

: to make a nick in : notch, chip

… her favorite haunts are … department stores where she scores deep discounts on nicked furniture sold off the floor.

—Heather Lobdell

b

: to cut into or wound slightly

nicked himself shaving

I didn't have time to get my glove up, and the ball nicked my ear as it went past me.

—Steve Wulf

3

: to cut short

… cold weather, which nicked steel and automobile output …

—Time

4

: to catch at the right point or time

5

: cheat, overcharge

"A cry of anguish ascended to high heavens," reported Business Week in 1933, "when millions of white-collar workers discovered that they had been nicked for a considerable percentage of their earnings when J. P. Morgan and partners had paid no income tax at all."

—Cynthia Crossen

6

a

British slang : arrest

The new owner, my brother, had installed all the window grilles and had them wired on a direct alarm to the police station so that if anyone tried to enter that way they would be nicked.

—Dick Francis

b

British slang : steal

… having your coat nicked is deeply annoying …

—Sam Leith

intransitive verb

1

: to make petty attacks : snipe

2

: to complement one another genetically and produce superior offspring

Synonyms of nick

• steal
• swipe

Examples of nick in a Sentence

He was nicked on the shoulder by a bullet.

She was nicked for the theft.

I nicked a couple of cars when I was younger.

Recent Examples on the Web

Fortunately for the Cubs’ shortstop, Popovich’s aim was as wild as her mane of chestnut hair; one bullet struck his right hand, another struck his left, and a third shot nicked him on the right side, but nowhere near a vital organ. —Literary Hub, 8 June 2026

After driving towards the box, his cutback is nicked off the toes of Riley McGree, for what could have been his second assist of the game. —Thom Harris, New York Times, 5 June 2026

The Wildcats nicked Alpert for two runs in the second inning, then tacked on another in the third via Levi Lueck’s RBI single. —Kyle Newman, Denver Post, 30 May 2026

The walls were lined with grocery shelves laden with ingredients nicked from Ducasse’s kitchen, with a few bottles of Heinz ketchup thrown in to broadcast the theme, which was chaos. —Miles Socha, Footwear News, 29 May 2026

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 2a

Phrases Containing nick

• in bad nick
• in good nick
• in the nick of time
• the nick

Rhymes for nick

• bick
• brick
• chick
• click
• fick
• flick
• hick
• kick
• knick
• lick
• mic
• pic

Kids Definition

nick

1 of 2 noun

ˈnik 

1

: a small groove : notch

2

: chip entry 1 sense 4

a nick in a cup

3

: the last moment at which the result of an event can be changed

arrived in the nick of time

nick

2 of 2 verb

1

: to make a nick in

2

: to wound or cut slightly

nicked himself shaving

Medical Definition

nick

1 of 2 noun

ˈnik 

: a break in one strand of two-stranded DNA caused by a missing phosphodiester bond

nick

2 of 2 transitive verb

: to produce a nick in (DNA)

circular DNA that has been nicked and closed