nickel Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a hard malleable ductile silvery metallic element that is resistant to corrosion; used in alloys; occurs in pentlandite and smaltite and garnierite and millerite
    Ni; atomic number 28.
  2. noun a United States coin worth one twentieth of a dollar
  3. noun five dollars worth of a drug
    nickel note.
    • a nickel bag of drugs
    • a nickel deck of heroin
  4. verb plate with nickel
    • nickel the plate

WordNet

Nick"el noun
Etymology
G., fr. Sw. nickel, abbrev. from Sw. kopparnickel copper-nickel, a name given in derision, as it was thought to be a base ore of copper. The origin of the second part of the word is uncertain. Cf. Kupfer-nickel, Copper-nickel.
Definitions
  1. (Chem.) A bright silver-white metallic element. It is of the iron group, and is hard, malleable, and ductile. It occurs combined with sulphur in millerite, with arsenic in the mineral niccolite, and with arsenic and sulphur in nickel glance. Symbol Ni. Atomic weight 58.6. ✍ On account of its permanence in air and inertness to oxidation, it is used in the smaller coins, for plating iron, brass, etc., for chemical apparatus, and in certain alloys, as german silver. It is magnetic, and is very frequently accompanied by cobalt, both being found in meteoric iron.
  2. A small coin made of or containing nickel; esp., a five-cent piece. Colloq. U.S.

Webster 1913