Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use nick in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Nick means a particular place or point considered as marked by a nick; the exact point or critical moment. Example: “The car I bought was cheap and in good nick.”

Examples of nick by meaning

nounA particular place or point considered as marked by a nick; the exact point or critical moment.

  • in the nick of time

nounOne of the single-stranded DNA segments produced during nick translation.

  • The nick translation process is simply a replication of DNA in vitro with DNA polymerase I (Klenow fragment) and radioactive nucleotide, which becomes incorporated into the duplicated DNA at a nick (break).2015, Byong H. Lee, “Concepts and Tools for Recombinant DNA Technology”, in Fundamentals of Food Biotechnology, 2nd edition, Chichester...

nounOften in the expressions in bad nick and in good nick: condition, state.

  • The car I bought was cheap and in good nick.
  • More unexpectedly, older tech and hardware stocks seem in decent nick, Mr Ives notes.2022 May 14, “Tech bubbles are bursting all over the place”, in The Economist, →ISSN

nounA police station or prison.

  • Poor Billy, he got seven years and he died in the nick in Liverpool in January 1958.2019 June 6, Frankie Fraser, James Morton, Mad Frank's Diary: The Confessions of Britain’s Most Notorious Villain, Random House, →ISBN
  • “They say he's a friend of Stuart's who he met in the nick down south.2021 March 23, William Stokes, The Riddle Exposed:: The Whiskey Firebombing's Link to the McCulkin Family Murders, Interactive...

verbTo make a nick or notch in; to cut or scratch in a minor way.

  • I nicked myself while I was shaving.

verbTo hit the ball with the edge of the bat and produce a fine deflection.

  • Two balls later, I nick one and it carries beautifully to Peter Bowler at first slip, a complete dolly catch, and he drops it.2013, Ian Botham, with Dean Wilson, “Steve James – Fine Dining”, in Beefy’s Cricket Tales: My Favourite Stories from On and Off the Field...

verbTo steal.

  • Someone’s nicked my bike!

verbTo arrest.

  • The police nicked him climbing over the fence of the house he’d broken into.

More sentences with nick

  • They were discounted because they contained blemishes, nicks or were otherwise factory seconds.From the entry second
  • They slashed at him with their swords, but only managed to nick one of his fingers.From the entry slash
  • He finished writing his paper and slid it under the door just in the nick of time.From the entry in the nick of time
  • A knicker nicker nicked a pair of knickers off the clothesline.From the entry knicker
  • Before they did the setup on the machining center, they stoned the table to knock down any nicked burrs.From the entry stone
  • Nick hired a navy-blue suit for the wedding.From the entry suit
  • The batsman succumbed to a snorter of short balls from the bowler and nicked a thin edge to the keeper.From the entry snorter
  • Nick bluffed him out of that pot with big lick.From the entry big lick
  • Nick Land's essay "Kant, Capital, and the Prohibition of Incest" is a great example of a Deleuzoguattarian critique of capital.From the entry Deleuzoguattarian
  • Nick found Judah still out on the floor next to the open and emptied safe.2021, Michael Farris Smith, chapter 55, in Nick, New York; Boston; London: Little, Brown and Company, page 269. From the entry halfsleep
  • Nick had asked her to be his date for the wedding.2019, Kat Mizera, Nowhere Left to Run. From the entry just friends
  • Nick opened the bureau door and told Joan he was going to find Susan.2015, Dan Riker, The Blue Girl Murders, page 287. From the entry bureau
  • “Why don't you just swim in the nick?” Nick smiles at this play on his name.2015 June 1, Pamela Power, Ms Conception, Penguin Random House South Africa, →ISBN. From the entry in the nick
  • 'Not that daft if it stops their bommie getting nicked.' Jack winked at Terry.2014, Trevor Hoyle, Down the Figure 7, Hachette UK, →ISBN. From the entry bommie
  • Nick Wheeler of Charles Tyrwhitt said: 'We went bust in '84.2014, Chris Robson, Confessions of an Entrepreneur. From the entry leg over
  • Nick Pentzell is a college student and “diffability” advocate for people on the autism spectrum.2013, “Contributors”, in Jami L. Anderson, Simon Cushing, editors, The Philosophy of Autism, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 208. From the entry diffability
  • Today's entry got to me just in the nick of time.2011 October 13, nekobun, “Nekobun's Cblog: There Would've Been Brawl: Let's Keep It Clean”, in Destructoid, archived from the original on…. From the entry save by the bell
  • Nick slapped on the lid with a wet tomato saucey squish.2010, Daniel Marks, “Vermillion”, in Trisha Telep, editor, Kiss Me Deadly: 13 Tales of Paranormal Love, Philadelphia, Pa.: Running Press…. From the entry tomato saucey
  • Nick is one of those academics who loves to teach, really lurves to teach.2005, Elaine Showalter, Faculty Towers: The Academic Novel and its Discontents, page 97. From the entry lurves
  • The bloke who nicked the Sea Journey has to be caught.”2005, Forest Jones, The Greatest English Detective Club #1, →ISBN, page 49. From the entry lose one's bottle
  • Nick looked at the floor, and at the rhythm of the black-and-gilt S-shaped balusters.2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 17, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN. From the entry baluster
  • Nick warmed the pot and put in two spoonfuls of lapsang.2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 16, in The Line of Beauty […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 389. From the entry lapsang
  • Also, what was the item she nicked from his shirt while she pawed him?2002 July 18, Lurker Dave, rec.arts.comics.marvel.universe (Usenet). From the entry paw
  • Nick from jail and then joins him as he goes about helping those in need.1999 December 4, “The Story Of St. Nick”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived…. From the entry St. Nick
  • Nick: A week Kevin: no, more than that Nick: oh , yeah, wanna bet?1998 December 9, Rebecca Glover, “Romeo AND Juliet!”, in alt.fan.backstreet.boys (Usenet). From the entry oh, someone of little faith
  • Nick Riviera: "I recommend a slow, steady gorging process, combined with assal horizontology."1995 November 5, “King-Size Homer”, in The Simpsons, season 7, episode 7, Matt Groening et al. (actors), production code 3F05. From the entry assal horizontology
  • Sharp currents nicked over her skin and jagged sparks from the lyranthe’s silver strings.1994, Janny Wurts, “[Elaira] Healing”, in Ships of Merior (The Wars of Light and Shadow; 2), New York, N.Y.: HarperPrism, published…. From the entry aflood
  • Nick made legs of his fingers and walked them on the baby's belly. . . .1990, John Harvey, The Legend of Captain Space, →ISBN, page 33. From the entry beer muscles
  • Nick, or Domenico, was sixty or so now and looked it.1980, Anthony Burgess, chapter 61, in Earthly Powers, London: Hutchinson. From the entry jowly
  • Nick get from the sun-bathed Turkish Mediterranean to the frozen north?1957 December 22, Peggy Street, Pierre Street, “Yes, There Was (and Is) a Santa Claus; […]”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The…. From the entry St. Nick

Meaning of nick

  1. noun A particular place or point considered as marked by a nick; the exact point or critical moment.
  2. noun A notch cut crosswise in the shank of a type, to assist a compositor in placing it properly in the stick, and in distribution.
  3. noun A small deflection of the ball off the edge of the bat, often going to the wicket-keeper for a catch.

Full definition of nick

Questions about nick in a sentence

How do you use nick in a sentence?
Nick is used as a noun and verb. For example: “The car I bought was cheap and in good nick.”
What is a short sentence with nick?
“Someone’s nicked my bike!”
What does nick mean?
Nick means a particular place or point considered as marked by a nick; the exact point or critical moment.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nick (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “How to use nick in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/nick. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.