Word.ws English Dictionary

nief

/niːf/

nief noun: a serf or bondsman born into servitude.

Noun (1)

nief (plural niefs)

  1. (historical) A serf or bondsman born into servitude.
    • That is, because the girl was his nief, or bondwoman, the daughter of one of his villains1886, "The Fight at the Pass of Coleshill", The Red Dragon "Notes and Queries", page 471

Noun (2)

nief (plural niefs or nieves)

  1. (Ireland, Northern England, Scotland) A clenched hand; fist.
    • Ake thought if ever he was walking alone on a dark-like night and Jimmy came on him, he with his bare nieves and Jimmy with a knife, he'd stand as much chance of getting home safe as a celluloid cat that had strayed into hell[…].1934, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Grey Granite, Polygon, published 2006, A Scots Quair, page 597
    • Nestorius exploded at that and hit out. He roared and dismissed the class, hitting out with his old mottled gnarled niefs.1989, Anthony Burgess, The Devil's Mode
  2. (Ireland, Northern England, Scotland) A handful or fistful.
  3. (Ireland, Northern England, Scotland) The handgrip of a sword or oar.

nief meaning in Tamil

nief in Tamil

பிறப்பினால் நில அடிமை

Forms of nief

pluralniefs
alternative formneif
pluralnieves
alternative formnieve
alternative Scotlandnef
alternative Scotlandnefe
alternative Scotlandneff
alternative Scotlandneiff
alternative Scotlandneaf

Origin of nief

From Old French [Term?], from Latin nativus (“natural”). Doublet of naif and native.

From Middle English neve (“the clenched hand, fist”), from Old Norse nefi, hnefi (also knefi) ("hand, fist, handful"), from Proto-Germanic *hnefô, from Proto-Indo-European *knep- (“to scrape, scratch, grind”), from Proto-Indo-European *ken- (“to scratch, scrape”). Cognate with Scots neif (“fist”), Norwegian neve, Danish næve, Swedish näve, Middle High German nevemez (“handful”).

Words that rhyme with nief

17 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about nief

What does nief mean?
Nief means a serf or bondsman born into servitude.
What is nief in Tamil?
Nief in Tamil is பிறப்பினால் நில அடிமை. See Nief meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is nief?
Nief is a noun.
How do you pronounce nief?
Nief is pronounced /niːf/.
What is the plural of nief?
The plural of nief is niefs.

Words near nief in the dictionary

  1. Niederschopfheim
  2. Niederwald
  3. Nieds
  4. Niedzwiecki
  5. Niedzwieckis
  6. nief
  7. Niefang
  8. niefling
  9. nieflings
  10. niefs
  11. Nieheim

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nief (page history and authors); nief (Tamil Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-nief.wav.

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