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nipper

noun
/ˈnɪpə(ɹ)/

Etymology

From nip + -er.

  1. derived from *knīpaną✻
  2. derived from *knīpan✻
  3. derived from *knīpan✻
  4. derived from knîpen
  5. inherited from nippen
  6. suffixed as nipper — “nip + er”

Definitions

  1. One who, or that which, nips.

    • Watt saw the little movements of the stuff, the little bulgings and crumplings, and the sudden indrawings, where it was nipped, between forefinger and thumb probably, for those are the nippers.

  2. Any of various devices (as pincers) for nipping.

  3. A child.

    • Heard what I was saying, and nipped off to the patrols the very next day. Pretty smart for a nipper of seven, eh?
    • No, this is not a creche: nippers should not be running around, fighting under the pool table or generally creating havoc (this applies to dogs, too).
  4. ›+ 15 more definitions

    1. A child aged from 5 to 13 in the Australian surf life-saving clubs.

      • It is the first day of training for a group of ten 'little nippers' (novice surf life-savers). An assortment of children expectantly hover in the clubhouse.
      • 2009, Didgeridoos and Didgeridon'ts: A Brit 's Guide to Moving Your Life Down Under Every club around Australia offers a Nippers programme. Nippers is open to children from the age of 5 through to 13 years old […]

    2. A boy working as a navvies' assistant.

    3. A mosquito.

    4. One of four foreteeth in a horse.

    5. A satirist.

      • […] ready backbiters, sore nippers, and spiteful reporters privily of good men.

    6. A pickpocket

      A pickpocket; a young or petty thief.

    7. A fish, the cunner.

    8. A European crab (Polybius henslowii).

    9. The claws of a crab or lobster.

    10. A young bluefish.

    11. A machine used by a ticket inspector to stamp passengers' tickets.

      • The railway ticket nipper has the identification number of the conductor on it […]

    12. One of a pair of automatically locking handcuffs.

    13. One of the gloves or mittens worn by fishermen to protect their hands from cold and…

      One of the gloves or mittens worn by fishermen to protect their hands from cold and abrasion.

      • Suddenly the line flashed through his hand, stinging even through the "nippers," the woolen circlets supposed to protect it.
      • Today, there are new synthetic materials to protect the hands, but until recently, fishermen wore nippers—thick rubber gloves with cotton lining.

    14. To seize (two ropes) together.

    15. A surname.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for nipper. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA