Nipping-jig, subs. (old).—Hanging.
Nippitate, subs. and adj. (Old Cant).—Strong drink, especially ale. Also nippitato and nippitatum.
c.1575. Laneham, Letter [Nares]. And ever quited himself with such estimation, az yet too tast of a cup of nippitati, hiz judgement will be taken above the best in the parish, be hiz nose near so read.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. of Abuses [Nares]. Then when this nippitatum, this huffe cappe, as they call it, this nectar of life, is set abroach, well is he that can get the soonest to it, and spend the most upon it.
1592. Nashe, Summer's Last Will [Dodsley, Old Plays (1874), viii., 60]. Never cap of Nipitaty in London come near thy niggardly habitation.
1593. Harvey, Pierce's Supererogation. The Nipitaty of the nappiest grape.
1594. Look About You [Dodsley, Old Plays (1874), vii., 445]. He was here to-day, Sir, And emptied two bottles of nippitate sack.
1600. Oliffe, Weakest Goes to Wall, B. 2. Well fare England, where the poore may have a pot of ale for a penny, fresh ale, firme ale, nappie ale, nippitate ale.
1611. Beaumont and Fletcher, Knight of Burning Pestle, iv. R. Lady, 'tis true, you need not lay your lips To better nippitato than there is.
1654. Chapman, Alphonsus, iii., 1. 'Twill make a cup of wine taste nippitate.
1891. Fennell, Stanford Dict., s.v. Nippitatum, quasi-Lat.; nippitato, quasi-It. . . . possibly connected with the Eng. vb. nip, = Du. nippen, 'to take a dram.'
Nipps, subs. (old).—Shears for
clipping money.—B. E. (c. 1696):
Grose (1785).
Nippy, subs. (children's).—The
penis: see Creamstick and
Prick.
Adj. (common).—Mean; stingy; curt; snappish.
Nipshot. To play nipshot, verb.
phr. (old).—To fail; to decamp:
see Absquatulate and Skedaddle.
1775. Baillie, Letters, ii., 198. Our great hope on earth, the City of London has played nipshot; they are speaking of dissolving the assembly.
Nique, subs. (American thieves').—Contemptuous
indifference.—Matsell
(1859).
Nisey. See Nizey.
Nit, subs. (old).—1. See quot.
c.1606. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Nit. Wine that is brisk, and pour'd quick into a glass.
2. (old: now recognised).—The egg of a louse.—B. E. (c. 1696); New Cant. Dict. (1725).
1598. Florio, Worlde of Words (1611). Zeiche neets in the eie lids. Also tikes that breed in dogs.
1698-1700. Ward, London Spy, 1. (1706), i., 12. [He] has as many Maggots in his Noddle, as there are . . . Nits in a Mumpers Doublet.
3. (Scots').—A wanton: see Barrack-hack and Tart [Jamieson].
Nits will become lice, phr. (old).—See quot.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v. Nits will become lice; of small matters that become important.
Nit-squeezer, subs. (common).—A
hair-dresser.—Grose (1788).
Nix (or nicks), adv. (common).—Nothing.
Also nix my doll,
and (American), nixy and nixy-cully.
Synonyms. Ack (Christ's
Hospital); love; nib, niberque,
niberte, nif, nisce, nix (French);
niba, niberto (Italian); nexo
(Spanish).
1789. Geo. Parker, Life's Painter, p. 143. Nicks. How they have brought a German word into cant I know not, but nicks means nothing in the cant language.
