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In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed... No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people. Preface to 1828 Dictionary
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NICK, n. In the northern mythology, an evil spirit of the saters; hence the modern vulgar phrase, Old Nick, the evil one.
NICK, n. [G. The nape; a continual nodding. The word seems to signify a point, from shooting forward.]
NICK, v.t.
NICK, v.t. [G. knicken, to flaw.] To notch or make an incision in a horses tail, to make him carry it higher.
An evil spirit of the waters.
Old Nick, the evil one; the devil. [Colloq.] A notch cut into something
; as:
A particular point or place considered as
marked by a nick; the exact point or critical moment.
To cut it off in the very nick. Howell. This nick of time is the critical occasion for the gainger of a point. L'Estrange. To make a nick or nicks in]
to notch; to keep count of or upon by nicks; as, to nick a
stick, tally, etc.
To mar; to deface; to make ragged, as by
cutting nicks or notches in.
And thence proceed to nicking sashes. Prior. The itch of his affection should not then To suit or fit into, as by a
correspondence of nicks; to tally with.
Words nicking and resembling one another are applicable to different significations. Camden. To hit at, or in, the nick; to touch
rightly; to strike at the precise point or time.
The just season of doing things must be nicked, and all accidents improved. L'Estrange. To make a cross cut or cuts on the under
side of (the tail of a horse, in order to make him carry it
higher).
To nickname; to
style.
[Obs.]
For Warbeck, as you nick him, came to me. Ford. | ||||||||