nickel
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: nĭk'əl
ipa: /ˈnɪk.əl/
rhymes: -ɪkəl
Forms: form: nickels
Etymology: Borrowed from German Nickel, first used in a text by the Swedish mineralogist Axel F. Cronstedt as an abbreviation of Kupfernickel (“a mineral containing copper and nickel”), from Kupfer (“copper”) + Nickel (“insignificant person, goblin”), originally nickname of Nikolaus (“Nicholas”), due to the deceptive silver colour of the relatively valueless ore. Compare cobalt as related to kobolds.
Senses: glosses: A silvery elemental metal with an atomic number of 28 and symbol Ni.
examples: text: That is just objectively terrifying regardless of contexts! He looks like if a nickel did cocaine!
ref: 2017 October 8, “Confederacy”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 4, episode 26, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:
synonyms: jitney
coordinate_terms: penny
cent
dime
quarter
half-dollar
glosses: A coin worth 5 cents.
glosses: Five dollars.
glosses: Five hundred dollars.
qualifier: sometimes the nickel or the hot nickel
glosses: Interstate 5, a highway that runs along the west coast of the United States.
glosses: A playing card with the rank of five
glosses: A five-year prison sentence.
topics: American-football
ball-games
football
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A defensive formation with five defensive backs, one of whom is a nickelback, instead of the more-common four.
examples: text: Colonel Hazeltine still had trouble persuading air commanders to drop the nickels. Pilots profanely protested against risking their necks on such foolishness. But in the end 15,000,000 leaflets a week were being dropped on Sicily and Italy.
ref: 1945, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 217, Curtis Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 79:
text: Many types of nickels were used in psychological warfare. Classified according to general purpose, there were strategic and tactical leaflets.
ref: 1948, The Army Air Forces in World War II, volume 3, Office of Air Force History, →ISBN, page 495:
text: Nickels, the code-name for propaganda leaflets, were ordinary 8-1/2×11" sheets of paper either printed on both sides or folded in half and printed on all four sides. […] On most of our flights, after leaving the DZ or landing strip we distributed 150 to 450 pounds of nickels over designated areas, and a few of our missions were nickel runs only.
ref: 2010, Richard H. Kraemer, The Secret War in the Balkans, Author House, →ISBN, page 136:
qualifier: World War II
glosses: An airborne propaganda leaflet.
Derived terms: allylnickel
Alumel
antimonial nickel
arsenical nickel
bismuth-nickel
Chromel
copper-nickel
cupro-nickel
cupronickel
dinickel
double-nickel
drop a nickel
ferronickel
ferronickelplatinum
hexanickel
hot nickel
if I had a nickel for every time
Nibral
nicad
Nichrome
nickel-and-dime
nickel and dime
nickel-antigorite
nickelate
nickelaustinite
Nickelback
nickel back
nickel bag
nickel-bloom
nickel bronze
nickel carbonyl
Nickel Centre
nickel chloride
nickel-chlorite
nickel glance
nickel green
nickel gymnite
nickel hydride
nickel hydroxide
nickelian
nickelic
nickeliferous
nickeline
nickel-in-the-slot
nickel-iron
nickelisation
nickelise
nickelite
nickelization
nickelize
nickelless
nickellike
nickel nitrate
nickel note
nickel nurser
nickelocene
nickel ocher
nickel ochre
nickelodeon
Nickelodeon
nickelous
nickelphosphide
nickel-plate
nickel-plated
Nickel Plate Road
nickel pyrites
nickel regulus
nickel rich
nickel-rich
nickel ride
nickel salt
nickel silver
nickel-skudderudite
nickel spinel
nickel steel
nickel sulfate
nickel sulfide
nickel sulphate
nickel sulphide
nickel tetracarbonyl
nonanickel
nonnickel
not worth a plugged nickel
not worth a plug nickel
organonickel
plugged nickel
plug nickel
proto-nickel
radionickel
Raney nickel
renickel
tetracarbonylnickel
tetranickel
that and a nickel will buy you a cup of coffee
that and a nickel will get you on the subway
trinickel
V nickel
wooden nickel
you pays your nickel and you takes your chances
you pays your nickel and you takes your choice
Related terms: kupfernickel
niccolite
nife
nitinol