NIGHT WARD. The night-watch.
NILL. Scales of hot iron at the armourer's forge. Also, the stars of rockets.
NIMBUS. Ragged and hanging clouds resolving into rain. (See [Cumulo-cirro-stratus].)
NINE-PIN BLOCK. A block in that form, mostly used for a fair-leader under the cross-pieces of the forecastle and quarter-deck bitts.
NINES, To the. An expression to denote complete.
NINGIM. A corruption of [ginseng] (which see).
NIP. A short turn in a rope. Also, a fishing term for a bite. In Arctic parlance, a nip is when two floes in motion crush by their opposite edges a vessel unhappily entrapped. Also, the parts of a rope at the place bound by the seizing, or caught by jambing. Also, Nip in the hawse; hence "freshen the nip," by veering a few feet of the service into the hawse.
NIPCHEESE. The sailor's name for a purser's steward.
NIPPER. The armourer's pincers or tongs. Also, a hammock with so little bedding as to be unfit for stowing in the nettings.
NIPPERING. Fastening nippers by taking turns crosswise between the parts to jam them; and sometimes with a round turn before each cross. These are called racking-turns.