nipper

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Related to nipper: NIPER

nip·per

(nĭp′ər)

1. often nippers A tool, such as pliers or pincers, used for squeezing or nipping.

2. A pincerlike part, such as the large claw of a crustacean.

3. Chiefly British A small boy.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

nipper

(ˈnɪpə)

1. a person or thing that nips

2. (Zoology) the large pincer-like claw of a lobster, crab, or similar crustacean

3. informal a small child

4. Austral a type of small prawn used as bait

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

nip•per

(ˈnɪp ər)

n.

1. a person or thing that nips.

2. Usu., nippers. a device for nipping, as pincers or forceps.

3. one of the two large claws of a crustacean.

a. a small boy.

b. Chiefly Brit. a costermonger's assistant.

[1525–35]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun	1.	nipper - a young person of either sex; "she writes books for children"; "they're just kids"; "`tiddler' is a British term for youngster" kid, minor, child, tiddler, youngster, tike, nestling, shaver, small fry, tyke, fry child's body - the body of a human child juvenile, juvenile person - a young person, not fully developed bairn - a child: son or daughter buster - a robust child changeling - a child secretly exchanged for another in infancy child prodigy, infant prodigy, wonder child - a prodigy whose talents are recognized at an early age; "Mozart was a child prodigy" foster child, foster-child, fosterling - a child who is raised by foster parents scamp, imp, monkey, rapscallion, rascal, scalawag, scallywag - one who is playfully mischievous kiddy - a young child orphan - a child who has lost both parents peanut - a young child who is small for his age poster child - a child afflicted by some disease or deformity whose picture is used on posters to raise money for charitable purposes; "she was the poster child for muscular dystrophy" kindergartener, kindergartner, preschooler - a child who attends a preschool or kindergarten silly - a word used for misbehaving children; "don't be a silly" sprog - a child bambino, toddler, yearling, tot - a young child urchin - poor and often mischievous city child street child, waif - a homeless child especially one forsaken or orphaned; "street children beg or steal in order to survive"
	2.	nipper - a grasping structure on the limb of a crustacean or other arthropods chela, pincer, claw crustacean - any mainly aquatic arthropod usually having a segmented body and chitinous exoskeleton appendage, extremity, member - an external body part that projects from the body; "it is important to keep the extremities warm"

nipper

noun

1. (Informal) child, girl, boy, baby, kid (informal), infant, tot, little one, sprog (slang), munchkin (informal, chiefly U.S.), rug rat (slang), littlie (Austral. informal), ankle-biter (Austral. slang) I couldn't have been much more than a nipper when you last saw me.

2. pincer, claw Just inside the ragworm's mouth is a sharp, powerful pair of nippers.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

Steppke

moucheron

bambino

nipper

[ˈnɪpəʳ] N (Brit) → chiquillo/a m/f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

nipper

(Zool) → Schere f, → Zange f

(Brit inf: = child) → Steppke m (inf)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

nipper

[ˈnɪpə] n (Brit) (fam) → bambino/a

References in classic literature ?

Nipper Nasmyth had been head of our school when Raffles was captain of cricket.

Yet of the throng, though two or three looked twice and thrice at Raffles, neither he nor I knew a soul until we had to change at the junction near our journey's end, when, as I say, it was I who recognized Nipper Nasmyth at sight.

And I think the Nipper recalled that name as he ground his heel upon an unresponsive flagstone.

I only know how the temperature of that meeting rose with Nipper Nasmyth.

Raffles returned to Nipper Nasmyth before the staring eyes and startled ears of all.

You might think that in the circumstances he would not have attended the head master's ball with which the evening ended; but that would be sadly to misjudge so perverse a creature as the notorious Nipper. He was probably one of those who protest that there is "nothing personal" in their most personal attacks.

I knew too many of the things he did," said Nipper Nasmyth.

View in context

Gravely he dismissed the hypothesis of Stevie being a drunken young nipper.

View in context

"D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that went to the Alpha were town bred."

View in context

Nippers. Strictly this word is not indigenous to the whale's vocabulary.

View in context

Fancy a surgeon, with his nippers lifting tendons, muscles and such things into view, out of the complex machinery of a corpse, and observing, "Now this little nerve quivers--the vibration is imparted to this muscle--from here it is passed to this fibrous substance; here its ingredients are separated by the chemical action of the blood--one part goes to the heart and thrills it with what is popularly termed emotion, another part follows this nerve to the brain and communicates intelligence of a startling character--the third part glides along this passage and touches the spring connected with the fluid receptacles that lie in the rear of the eye.

View in context

The contents of the boy's pockets naturally made a larger heap, and included marbles, a ball of string, an electric torch, a magnet, a small catapult, and, of course, a large pocketknife, almost to be described as a small tool box, a complex apparatus on which he seemed disposed to linger, pointing out that it included a pair of nippers, a tool for punching holes in wood, and, above all, an instrument for taking stones out of a horse's hoof.