nim
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /nɪm/
rhymes: -ɪm
homophone: nym
Forms: form: nims
form: nimming
form: nimmed
form: nimmed
Etymology: From Middle English nimen, from Old English niman (“to take”), from Proto-West Germanic *neman, from Proto-Germanic *nemaną (“to take”), from Proto-Indo-European *nem- (“to give or take one's due”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian nieme (“to take”), West Frisian nimme (“to take”), Dutch nemen (“to take”), Low German nehmen (“to take”), German nehmen (“to take”), Danish nemme (“to learn, grasp”). Related to numb and nimble.
Senses: examples: text: Ich cham a Cornysche man, al[e] che can brew; […] Nym me a quart of ale, that iche may it of sup.
ref: 1547 (original; printed 1870), Andrew Boorde, The First Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge, page 122
text: Then Alfyne to the court Of Syleuma doth come,
And Pandauola in her armes
Her Alfyne hath up num
And kisseth him full ofte […]
ref: 1566–1573 (original; printed 1873), John Partridge, The Hystorie of the Moste Noble Knight Plasidas, and Other Rare Pieces, page 106
text: Gryndall carefully sets out the difference between seizing or nimming a bird (an outcome that would constitute a partly successful flight) and taking the bird outright: 'And if your Hawke noume [nim, seize] a foule, and the foule breake from her, she hath discomfited many feathers of the foule, and is broken away: but in kindly speech you shall say, your hawke hath noumed or seased a foule, and not taken it'.
ref: 2017, Thomas Heywood, A Woman Killed With Kindness, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 155:
glosses: To take or seize.
examples: text: They'll question Mars, and, by his look,
 Detect who 'twas that nimm'd a cloak;
ref: 1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, part 1, canto 1:
text: Nimming and niftering whativver he can try his fists on.
ref: 1785, Hutton, Bran New Wark, I. 305, quoted in 1903, Joseph Wright, The English Dialect Dictionary: M-Q, page 273
text: But while he fell in some brave exploit, you, I suppose, being provident rogues and thieves of discretion, were on the sure lay, pilfering little thefts among the mob, fearfully nimming a cloak or rifling some old woman's bulk of a stock to set up a piece-broker's shop.
ref: 1821, Apuleius, The Golden Ass of Lucius Apuleius, of Medaura, page 131:
text: They nim a pig, a duck, or fowl.
ref: 1824 (edition; original 1790), Nairne, Tales, 37, quoted in 1903, Joseph Wright, The English Dialect Dictionary: M-Q, page 273
text: Shall we go nim a horse, Tom,—what dost think? […] Nim? yes, yes, yes, let's nim with all my heart; I see no harm in nimming, for my part; […] Were it my lord mayor's hourse—I'd nim it first. [...A horse] they stole, or, as they called it, nimmed,
 Just as the twilight all the landscape dimmed. […] What is most likely, is that both these elves
 Were, in like manner, halter-nimmed themselves.
ref: 1854, Oliver Oldham, Oldham's Amusing and Instructive Reader: A Course of Reading, Original and Selected, in Prose and Poetry, Wherein Wit, Humor, and Mirth are Made the Means of Awakening Interest, and Imparting Instructon : for the Use of Schools and Academies, page 110:
glosses: To filch, steal, pilfer.
examples: text: The old lady does nim along.
1949, Wilfrid J. Halliday, Arthur Stanley Umpleby, The White Rose Garland of Yorkshire Dialect Verse and Local and Folk-lore Rhymes (quoting Irene Sutcliffe), page 111:
Ah had set myself doon where the aums meet aboon,
ref: 1856, Thompson, Hist. Boston, page 716, quoted in 1903, Joseph Wright, The English Dialect Dictionary: M-Q, page 273
roman: When Jinny jamp oop, and ganned nimming alang
glosses: To walk with short, quick strides; trip along.
Derived terms: nimps
overnim
withername
Related terms: benim
nimble
nimmer
numb