1768. Ross, Helenore, 126. Frae your ain uncle's gate was nipt awa' That bonny bairn, 'twas thought by Junky Fa.
3. (common).—To go. To nip along = to move with speed; to nip in = to slip in, etc.
1885. Daily Telegraph, 2 Jan., 2, 2. I nipped out of bed.
1892. Milliken, 'Arry Ballads, 66. Managed to nip in first-class.
1892. F. Anstey, Voces Populi, 'At the Tudor Exhibition.' Jove—my Aunt! Nip out before she spots me.
4. (common).—To take a dram.
1888. Rolf Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, xxiv. You never saw a man look so scared as the passenger on the box-seat, a stout, jolly commercial, who'd been giving the coachman Havana cigars, and yarning and nipping with him at every house they passed.
1896. The Lancet, No. 3452, 863. In the homes alike of rich and poor the women have learned the fatal habit of nipping, and slowly but surely become confirmed dipsomaniacs.
5. (old).—See quot., nip, verb., sense 1, nip-cheese, and nip-louse.
c.1696. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Nip. To pinch or sharp anything.
6. (old).—To taunt; to wring.
1599. Stowe, Hist. Lond., 55. There were some, which on the other side, with epigrams and rymes, nipping and gripping their fellowes.
1581. Riche, Farewell. These cogitations did so nippe him, that he could not so well dissemble his grief.
7. (thieves').—To arrest; to pinch (q.v.).
1851-61. Mayhew, Lon. Lab., iii., 147. They'd follow you about, and keep on nipping a fellow.
Nip and tuck, adv. phr. (common).—Touch and go; neck and neck; equality or thereabouts. Also nip and tack, nip and chuck, &c.
1847. Porter, Quarter Race, &c., 17. It will be like the old bitch and the rabbit, nip and tack every jump.
1869. Putnam's Mag., Jan. It was nip and tuck all along, who was to win her.
1888. Detroit Free Press, 20 Oct. We had some pretty running. It was nip and tuck. We kept about an equal distance apart.
To nip in the bud, verb. phr. (old: now recognised).—See quot.
c.1696. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Nip. To nip in the bud. Of an early Blast or Blite of Fruit; also to crush anything at the beginning.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
Nip-cheese, subs. (old).—1. A
miser. Also Nip-squeeze and
Nip-farthing.—Grose (1785).
1566. Drant, Horace, Sat. 1. I would thee not a nip-farthing, Nor yet a niggard have.
2. (nautical).—See quots. 1785, 1842, and 1867.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Nip Cheese, a nickname for the purser of a ship, from those gentlemen being supposed sometimes to nip, or diminish the allowance of the seamen, in that and every other article.
1834. Marryat, Jacob Faithful, xx. (1873), 156. It's some of old Nipcheese's eights, that he has sent on shore to bowse his jib up with, with his sweetheart.
1842. Marryat, Percival Kerne, xiii. 'That's a nipcheese.' 'Nipcheese! 'Yes; nipcheese means purser of the ship.'
1867. Smyth, Sailors' Word Book, 477, s.v. Nipcheese. The sailors' name for a purser.
Nip-louse, subs. (common).—A
tailor. Also pricklouse. See
Snip.
Nip-lug, subs. (Scots').—A teacher; a schoolmaster.
