Nine, nīn, adj. and n. eight and one.—n. Nine′-eyes, a popular name for the young lampreys found in rivers.—adj. Nine′fold, nine times folded or repeated.—ns. Nine′holes, a game in which a ball is to be bowled into nine holes in the ground or a board; Nine′pins, a game at bowls, a form of skittles, so called from nine pins being set up to be knocked down by a ball.—adj. Nine′-score, nine times twenty.—n. the number of nine times twenty.—adj. and n. Nine′teen, nine and ten.—adj. Nine′teenth, the ninth after the tenth: being one of nineteen equal parts.—n. a nineteenth part.—adj. Nine′tieth, the last of ninety: next after the eighty-ninth.—n. a ninetieth part.—adj. and n. Nine′ty, nine tens.—adj. Ninth, the last of nine: next after the eighth.—n. one of nine equal parts.—adv. Ninth′ly, in the ninth place.—Nine days' wonder (see Wonder); Nine men's morris (see Morris); Nine worthies, Hector, Alexander the Great, Julius Cæsar, Joshua, David, Judas Maccabæus, Arthur, Charlemagne, Godfrey of Bouillon; The nine, the nine muses (see Muse); To the nines, to perfection, fully, elaborately. [A.S. nigon; Dut. negen, L. novem, Gr. ennea, Sans. navan.]
Ninny, nin′i, n. a simpleton.—Also Ninn′y-hamm′er. [It. ninno, child; Sp. niño, infant.]
Niobe, nī′o-bē, n. daughter of Tantalus, and wife of Amphion, king of Thebes. Proud of her many children, she gloried over Latona, who had but two, Artemis and Apollo. But these killed them all, on which the weeping mother was turned into stone by Zeus.—adj. Niobē′an.
Niobium, nī-ō′bi-um, n. a rare metal, steel-gray in colour, discovered in the mineral Tantalite—sometimes called Columbium.
Nip, nip, n. a sip, esp. of spirits—also Nip′per (U.S.).—v.i. to take a dram.—n. Nip′perkin, a small measure of liquor. [Dut. nippen, to sip.]
Nip, nip, v.t. to pinch: to press between two surfaces: to cut off the edge: to check the growth or vigour of: to destroy: to bite, sting, satirise:—pr.p. nip′ping; pa.t. and pa.p. nipped.—n. a pinch: a seizing or closing in upon: a cutting off the end: a blast: destruction by frost: (min.) a more or less gradual thinning out of a stratum: (naut.) a short turn in a rope, the part of a rope at the place bound by the seizing or caught by jambing.—ns. Nip′-cheese, a stingy fellow: (naut.) the purser's steward; Nip′per, he who, or that which, nips: one of various tools or implements like pincers: one of a pair of automatically locking handcuffs: a chela or great claw, as of a crab: the young bluefish: a boy who attends on navvies: (obs.) a thief: one of the four fore-teeth of a horse: (pl.) small pincers.—v.t. to seize (two ropes) together.—adv. Nip′pingly.—Nip in the bud, to cut off in the earliest stage. [From root of knife; Dut. knijpen, Ger. kneipen, to pinch.]
Nipperty-tipperty, nip′ėr-ti-tip′ėr-ti, adj. (Scot.) silly, frivolous.
Nipple, nip′l, n. the pap by which milk is drawn from the breasts of females: a teat: a small projection with an orifice, as the nipple of a gun.—v.t. to furnish with a nipple.—ns. Nipp′le-shield, a defence for the nipple worn by nursing women; Nipp′le-wort, a small, yellow-flowered plant of remedial use. [A dim. of neb or nib.]
Nippy, nip′i, adj. (Scot.) sharp in taste: curt: parsimonious.
Nipter, nip′tėr, n. the ecclesiastical ceremony of washing the feet—the same as maundy. [Gr. niptēr, a basin—niptein, to wash.]