nickel

Meaning

Noun

1. (uncountable) A silvery elemental metal with an atomic number of 28 and symbol Ni.
2. (Canada, US, countable) A coin worth 5 cents.
3. (US, broadly, countable, slang, uncountable) Five dollars.
4. (US, broadly, countable, slang, uncountable) Five hundred dollars.
5. (US, countable, slang, uncountable) Interstate 5, a highway that runs along the west coast of the United States.
6. (countable, slang, uncountable) A playing card with the rank of five
7. (US, countable, slang, uncountable) A five-year prison sentence.
8. (countable, uncountable) A defensive formation with five defensive backs, one of whom is a nickelback, instead of the more-common four.
9. (UK, countable, uncountable) An airborne propaganda leaflet.

Adj

Synonym of cheap: Low price and/or low value.

Verb

1. (transitive) To plate with nickel.
2. (UK) To distribute airborne leaflet propaganda.

Synonyms

Ni

lightweight

cheap

five cent coin

atomic number 28

nickel note

damn

nickel-plate

five cents

plate with nickel

5 cent piece

nickelize

five-cent piece

bucky

jit

nickel plate

sou

fivepence

Translations

nickel

níquel

Nickel

níquel

nikkel

nichel

νικέλιο

níquel

نيكل

nikel

niccolum

nichelio

nickelio

nîkel

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈnɪk.əl/

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.