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Nick vs Gay - What's the difference?

nick | gay |

In obsolete terms the difference between nick and gay

is that nick is to nickname; to style while gay is an ornament.

As nouns the difference between nick and gay

is that nick is a small cut in a surface while gay is a homosexual, especially a male homosexual; see also lesbian.

As verbs the difference between nick and gay

is that nick is to make a nick or notch in; to cut or scratch in a minor way while gay is to make happy or cheerful.

As proper nouns the difference between nick and gay

is that nick is a diminutive of the male given name Nicholas while Gay is {{surname|A=An|English|from=nicknames}}, originally a nickname for a cheerful or lively person.

As an adjective gay is

happy, joyful, and lively.

nick

English

(wikipedia nick)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A small cut in a surface.
  • # A particular point or place considered as marked by a nick; the exact point or critical moment.
  • in the nick of time
  • #*, II.20:
  • Truely he flies when he is even upon the nicke , and naturally hasteneth to escape it, as from a step whereon he cannot stay or containe himselfe, and feareth to sinke into it.
  • #* Howell
  • to cut it off in the very nick
  • # (printing, dated) A notch cut crosswise in the shank of a type, to assist a compositor in placing it properly in the stick, and in distribution.
  • Meanings connoting something small.
  • # (cricket) A small deflection of the ball off the edge of the bat, often going to the wicket-keeper for a catch.
  • # (real tennis) The point where the wall of the court meets the floor.
  • # (genetics) One of the single-stranded DNA segments produced during nick translation.
  • (archaic) A nixie, or water-sprite.
  • * 1879 , Viktor Rydberg, The Magic of the Middle Ages (p.201)
  • *:imps, giants, trolls, forest-spirits, elves and hobgoblins in and on the earth; nicks , river-sprites in the water, fiends in the air, and salamanders in the fire.
  • a user's reserved nick on an IRC network
  • (UK, slang) In the expressions in bad nick'' and ''in good nick : condition.
  • The car I bought was cheap and in good nick .
  • * '>citation
  • (British, slang) A police station or prison.
  • He was arrested and taken down to Sun Hill nick [police station] to be charged.
    He's just been released from Shadwell nick [prison] after doing ten years for attempted murder.

    Derived terms

    * in the nick of time

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make a nick or notch in; to cut or scratch in a minor way.
  • I nicked myself while I was shaving.
  • # To make a cross cut or cuts on the underside of (the tail of a horse, in order to make the animal carry it higher).
  • # To mar; to deface; to make ragged, as by cutting nicks or notches in.
  • #* Prior
  • And thence proceed to nicking sashes.
  • #* Shakespeare
  • The itch of his affection should not then / Have nicked his captainship.
  • To suit or fit into, as by a correspondence of nicks; to tally with.
  • * Camden
  • Words nicking and resembling one another are applicable to different significations.
  • # To hit at, or in, the nick; to touch rightly; to strike at the precise point or time.
  • #* L'Estrange
  • The just season of doing things must be nicked , and all accidents improved.
  • # To throw or turn up (a number when playing dice); to hit upon.
  • #* {{quote-book, year=1773
  • , author=Oliver Goldsmith , title=She Stoops to Conquer , text=My old luck: I never nicked seven that I did not throw ames ace three times following.}}
  • # (cricket) to hit the ball with the edge of the bat and produce a fine deflection
  • (obsolete) To nickname; to style.
  • * Ford
  • For Warbeck, as you nick him, came to me.
  • (slang) To steal.
  • Someone's nicked my bike!
  • (transitive, British, slang) To arrest.
  • The police nicked him climbing over the fence of the house he'd broken into.

    gay

    English

    Proper noun

    (en proper noun)
  • , originally a nickname for a cheerful or lively person.
  • from the word gay, "joyful"; rare today.
  • . Also a shortened form of Gabriel, Gaylord and similar names, or transferred from the surname.
  • * 1992 , Unto the Sons , Ballantine Books 1993, ISBN 0804110336, page 15
  • - - - my father's father, Gaetano Talese ( whose name I inherited after my birth in 1932, in the anglicized from of "Gay "), was an atypically fearless traveler,
  • * 2004 , Bad Dirt , Fourth Estate, ISBN 0007196911, page 32
  • "Mr Gay Brawls. What a name."
    "It didn't use to mean what it means now. Plenty were named Gay'. Even in Nevada. Was old ' Gay Pitch had a gas station in Winnemucca. Nobody thought nothin about it and he raised a railroad car of kids.- - -

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