Word.ws English Dictionary

nicky-tam

nicky-tam noun: a pair of straps or pieces of string tied around the leg below the knee to raise trousers above the level of farmyard dirt.

Noun

nicky-tam (plural nicky-tams)

  1. A pair of straps or pieces of string tied around the leg below the knee to raise trousers above the level of farmyard dirt.
    • Use for ditching.
    • A Pair of Nicky-Tams Folk song.
  2. The same to prevent the ingress of dust and vermin up the trouser leg.
    • Keeping rats out.
  3. (broadly) A simpleton or country yokel.
    • Interview with Sir Nicky Tam in the Aberdeen Voice.
    • See also "A Pair of Nicky-Tams".

Forms of nicky-tam

pluralnicky-tams

Origin of nicky-tam

From knickerbockers (due to the shape that the trouser legs adopt) + taum (a cord).

Questions about nicky-tam

What does nicky-tam mean?
Nicky-tam means a pair of straps or pieces of string tied around the leg below the knee to raise trousers above the level of farmyard dirt.
What part of speech is nicky-tam?
Nicky-tam is a noun.
What is the plural of nicky-tam?
The plural of nicky-tam is nicky-tams.

Words near nicky-tam in the dictionary

  1. nickums
  2. Nicky
  3. nicky nacky noo
  4. nicky nacky noos
  5. nicky-nicky-nine-doors
  6. nicky-tam
  7. nicky-tams
  8. Niclaes
  9. niclofolan
  10. niclosamide
  11. Nico

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nicky-tam (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: “nicky-tam.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nicky-tam. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.