Word.ws English Dictionary

nickels and dimes

nickels and dimes is the third-person singular simple present indicative of nickel and dime.

Meaning of nickel and dime

Verb

nickel and dime (third-person singular simple present nickel and dimes or nickels and dimes, present participle nickel and diming or (US) nickeling and diming or (UK) nickelling and diming, simple past and past participle nickel and dimed or (US) nickeled and dimed or (UK) nickelled and dimed)

  1. (US, colloquial, idiomatic) To charge, or be charged, several unexpected small amounts of money, often in the form of fees, taxes, or related expenses to a venture, which when taken as a whole add up to a significant unexpected cost.
    • I got nickel and dimed to death by the phone company's sneaky extra charges.
  2. (US, colloquial, figuratively, idiomatic) To wear down in small increments; to quibble or obsess endlessly with (someone) over trifles.

See all 5 meanings of nickel and dime

Questions about nickels and dimes

What is nickels and dimes the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Nickels and dimes is the third-person singular simple present indicative of nickel and dime.

Words near nickels and dimes in the dictionary

  1. nickelodeon
  2. nickelodeons
  3. nickelous
  4. nickelphosphide
  5. nickels
  6. nickels and dimes
  7. nickels-and-dimes
  8. nickelschneebergite
  9. Nickelson
  10. Nickelsons
  11. nickenichite

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nickels and dimes (page history and authors); nickel and dime (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “nickels and dimes.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nickels_and_dimes. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.