Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1965 (SND Vol. VI). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
†NICKS, v, n. Also nix.
I. v. To set something up as a mark and throw at it, to aim at something near (Rxb. 1825 Jam.). Vbl.n. nixin, a game in which ginger-bread cakes are placed on pieces of wood, and on payment of a charge a stick measuring about a yard long may be thrown at them, the thrower claiming as many cakes as are displaced (Ib.). Hence nixum, an upset, “knock-out.”Slk. 1832 Fraser's Mag. (Sept.) 165–6:
I gaed away to help them to bury the auld roudess, Mrs. Torpin; but we hae gotten sic a nixum. They shall ken when they get me to bury an auld wife in a drift again. . . . Auld roudess! She has gotten a nixum.
II. n. Aim, in phr. to tak nicks at. Rxb.1898E. HamiltonMawkin xvi.:
Standing tirling at the door-pin, with Mistress Jennie taking nicks at us the while with her bit dags.
