nick
18
9.9
A British informal place where people are kept after a crime
- noun
- /nɪk/
- Slang
:
talego (informal, España)
- But I'm afraid it's back to the nick with you.
Examples
-
She's top dog in this nick.
-
He was arrested and taken straight to the nick for processing.
-
There was a couple of those big-haired lads in the nick.
-
Straight to the Beast's wing in Saughton nick.
-
After a night out, he found himself waking up in the nick with no memory of how he got there.
-
The police station downtown is often referred to as the nick by locals.
Synonyms
9.9
An old British word for a prison or jail
is the modern British slang term rather than the older form
Idioms
Compounds
Surface Forms
Etymology
The nick meaning 'prison' is British slang; a helpful way to remember it is that someone who is nicked ('caught' or 'arrested') is taken to the 'nick', so the word means the place where arrested people are kept.