1819. Vaux, Memoirs, s.v.
1824. Egan, Boxiana, iv., 444. Men who can be backed for large stakes do seldom fight for nix (comically called 'love').
1852. Old Song, 'The Cadger's Ball' [Farmer, Musa Pedestris (1896), 147]. Old Mother Swankey, she consented to lend her lodging-house for nix.
1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, iii., 1, p. 254. Do you see all this land? said he . . . well, the grandfather of this here Lord Southwark got it for nix.
1887. Henley, Villon's Straight Tip, 3. For nix, for nix the dibbs you bag.
1892. Ally Sloper, 19 Mar., 90, 3. When death of Uncle John bereft us, We said we mourned because he'd left us; Our mourning was a lot profounder To find he'd left us nix—the bounder!
2. (American).—See quot.
1885. W. S. Official P.O. Guide, Jan., 685. Nixes is a term used in the railway mail service to denote matter of domestic origin, chiefly of the second and first class, which is unmailable because addressed to places which are not post-offices, or to States, etc., in which there is no such post-office as that indicated in the address.
Intj. (common).—See quot.
1883. Indoor Paupers, 45. So the thing goes on until some one on the watch cries, 'Nix lads, buttons!'—the warning that the taskmaster is at hand.
Nix my doll, phr. (common).—Never mind! [Popularised by Ainsworth's song]. Also (Vaux) = nothing.
1819. Vaux, Memoirs, s.v.
1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood. . . . And my old dad, as I've heard say, Was a famous merchant in capers gay; Nix my dolly, pals, fake away!
1846. Punch Almanack, 'Song of September' (after Ainsworth) . . . What ho! my gun, my gallant boys, September's always jolly; I love the sportsman's pleasant noise Yoicks! Forward! Nix my dolly.
Niz-priz, subs. (legal).—A writ of
nisi-prius.
Nizzie, subs. (old).—1. A fool:
see Buffle and Cabbage-head.
Also nikin.—B. E. (c.
1696); Coles (1724).
1755. Johnson, Eng. Dict., s.v. Ni'zy [from niais]. A dunce; a simpleton. A low word.
b.1755. Anon [quoted by Johnson]. True critics laugh, and bid the trifling nisy Go read Quintilian.
2. (old).—A coxcomb.—B. E. (c. 1696).
No. No battle, phr. (printers').—No
good; not worth while.
No chicken, phr. (common). Getting on in years: usually of women.
1889. Drage, Cyril, iv. I dont think that Miss Vera is any chicken.
No end, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Extremely; a great many. A general intensive.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, xiii. (1864), 141. The black and yellow seems to slip along so fast. They're no end of good colours. I wish our new boat was black.
1863. Reade, Hard Cash, 1. 325. They drifted past a Revenue Cutter, who was lying to with her head to the Northward. She howled no end of signals, but they understood none of them.
1876. Grant, One of the Six Hundred, xiv. We were beset by London Jews and army contractors, and I had, as the phrase goes, no end of unsuspected things to provide.
No fear. See Fear.
No-flies, adv. (printers').—Artful; designing. Also N.F. (q.v.)
No fool, adv. phr. (common).
—An ironical intensive: cf. no slouch.
1888. Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, xix. It was thirty feet high—no fool of a drop.
