Word.ws English Dictionary

nieve

/niːv/

nieve is the variant form of nief.

Meaning of nief

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
  2. (Ireland, Northern England, Scotland) A handful or fistful.
  3. (Ireland, Northern England, Scotland) The handgrip of a sword or oar.

Forms of nieve

pluralnieves

Words formed from nieve

Words that rhyme with nieve

45 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about nieve

What is nieve the variant form of?
Nieve is the variant form of nief.
How do you pronounce nieve?
Nieve is pronounced /niːv/.

Words near nieve in the dictionary

  1. Nieuw-Amsterdam
  2. Nieuwegein
  3. Nieuwkoop
  4. Nieva
  5. Nievas
  6. nieve
  7. nieveful
  8. nievefuls
  9. nieves
  10. Nieveses
  11. nievie-nievie-nick-nack

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nieve (page history and authors); nief (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-nieve.wav.

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