nugget
/ˈnʌɡət/
nugget noun: a small, compact chunk or clump.
Noun
nugget (countable and uncountable, plural nuggets)
- A small, compact chunk or clump.
- a gold nugget
- Rough men brought pickle bottles full of nuggets. Mysterious dirty-looking calico bags were opened, disclosing small quantities of water-worn flaky gold, which had been washed out of the beds of rivers with a cradle.1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 146
- A chicken nugget.
- By now, we hope you have said “no” to processed nuggets and fingers. Instead, how about taking some real chicken, tossing it with real eggs, a little tangy mustard, and a crunchy quinoa coating?2014, Laurie David, The Family Cooks
- A tidbit of something valuable.
- a nugget of wisdom
- a nugget of truth
- A small piece of tasty food, a tidbit.
- A type of boot polish.
- A bud from the Cannabis sativa plant, especially one that is potent.
- An inexperienced, newly trained fighter pilot.
- Jack stifled a smirk at the ensign's expressionless non-reaction. He'd been a nugget himself once, the new guy fresh from training.2009, Nick Scipio, Nereids
- A partial description gleaned from data mining.
- We have previously said that the heuristic algorithms produce good nuggets for most classes and most λ values […]2002, Data Mining: A Heuristic Approach, (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 93
- A person with no arms or legs; a basket case.
- An item that is typically old and of dubious quality or poor condition.
Verb
nugget (third-person singular simple present nuggets, present participle nuggeting or (rare) nuggetting, simple past and past participle nuggeted or (rare) nuggetted)
- To find nuggets (of something valuable)
- The other day, you are told, a fellow nuggetted ten or twenty pounds weight, and, of course, you see no reason why half a hundred weight might not be lying snugly ensconced awaiting the revelations of your pick.1852, James Bonwick, Notes of a Gold Digger: and Gold Digger's Guide, Melbourne: R. Connebee, page 8
- To smear a male's genitals or anus with boot polish or similar substance against his will.
- Among the complaints to Dart, “blackballing” or “nuggetting” was the most common form of sexual abuse carried out by recruits, and referred to a boy being forcibly held down “while boot polish, toothpaste or another substance was forcibly smeared on his genitals or anal area, sometimes with a hard...2014 June 17, Helen Davidson, “Blackballing and blanket beatings: decades of abuse at defence training school revealed”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
nugget meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
nugget in Hindi
- नगेट, नग्गेट
nugget in Tamil
- இயல் தங்கககட்டி, தகணை
nugget in Marathi
- नग्गेट
nugget in Urdu
- ڈلا, ڈھیلا
More languagesFewer languages
- nugget in Bengali
- তাল, পিণ্ডক
- nugget in Telugu
- నగ్గెట్, నగెట్
- nugget in Malayalam
- കട്ടി kaṭṭi
- nugget in Kannada
- ಚಿನ್ನದ ಗಟ್ಟಿ
- nugget in Odia
- ନଗ୍ଗେଟ୍, ନଗେଟ୍
- nugget in Nepali
- नग्गेट, नगेट
Examples of nugget in a sentence
- Loose nodular deposits of gold metal are commonly referred to as nuggets.
- The best you’d get is one of those animal-shaped chicken nuggets they give to kids.
- By now, we hope you have said “no” to processed nuggets and fingers.
Forms of nugget
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | nuggets |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | nuggets |
| present participle | nuggeting |
| past participle | nuggeted |
| past | nuggeted |
| present participle (rare) | nuggetting |
| past participle (rare) | nuggetted |
| past (rare) | nuggetted |
Origin of nugget
Uncertain, first attested in reference to animals & people in Scotland and in reference to ore chunks in Australia. Possibly from southern English nug (“lump, block”) or Scottish knudge/nudge (“short, sturdy person or animal”) + -et (“forming diminutives”) or from rebracketed alteration of an ingot as a ni(n)got.
Words formed from nugget
Phrases with nugget
Questions about nugget
- What does nugget mean?
- Nugget means a small, compact chunk or clump.
- What is nugget in Hindi?
- Nugget in Hindi is नगेट, नग्गेट. See Nugget meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is nugget?
- Nugget can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce nugget?
- Nugget is pronounced /ˈnʌɡət/.
- What is the plural of nugget?
- The plural of nugget is nuggets.
Words near nugget in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: nugget (page history and authors); nugget (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nugget (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nugget (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nugget (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nugget (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nugget (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); കട്ടി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); nugget (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nugget (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nugget (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: En-au-nugget.ogg.
Cite this entry: “nugget.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nugget. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.