Nick /(nĭk)/

1. An evil spirit of the waters. (Northern Myth.)

1. A notch cut into something (Print.) [Obs.]
2. A broken or indented place in any edge or surface; as, nicks in a china plate; a nick in the table top.
3. A particular point or place considered as marked by a nick; the exact point or critical moment.

   To cut it off in the very nick.

   This nick of time is the critical occasion for the gaining of a point.

imp. & p. p. Nicked; p. pr. & vb. n. Nicking

1. To make a nick or nicks in; to notch; to keep count of or upon by nicks; as, to nick a stick, tally, etc.
2. To mar; to deface; to make ragged, as by cutting nicks or notches in; to create a nick{2} in, deliberately or accidentally; as, to nick the rim of a teacup.

   And thence proceed to nicking sashes.

   The itch of his affection should not then Have nicked his captainship.

3. To suit or fit into, as by a correspondence of nicks; to tally with.

   Words nicking and resembling one another are applicable to different significations.

4. To hit at, or in, the nick; to touch rightly; to strike at the precise point or time.

   The just season of doing things must be nicked, and all accidents improved.

5. To make a cross cut or cuts on the under side of (the tail of a horse, in order to make him carry it higher).

1. To nickname; to style. [Obs.]

   For Warbeck, as you nick him, came to me.