Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun plural Small pinchers for holding, breaking, or cutting.
  • noun plural (Mach.) A device with fingers or jaws for seizing an object and holding or conveying it; as, in a printing press, a clasp for catching a sheet and conveying it to the form.
  • noun plural (Naut.) A number of rope-yarns wound together, used to secure a cable to the messenger.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Plural form of nipper.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • And if one of your nippers was his pupil, I think you would feel the same.

    Should teachers be accountable for their private lives? 2011

  • "Well, that's why you brought your 'nippers' along," said Chester.

    The Boy Allies with Haig in Flanders Or, the Fighting Canadians of Vimy Ridge

  • Oil-clothes, heavy under-clothing, hip boots of red rubber, white, doughnut-shaped woolen "nippers" for pulling trawls, and various other articles for convenience and comfort were added to their outfits.

    Jim Spurling, Fisherman or Making Good Albert Walter Tolman

  • He speaks to them of his own little "nippers" at home, and they in turn tell him of their father who is fighting, of their mother who now works in the fields, and of baby who is fearfully ignorant, does not know the difference between the French and the "Engleesch," and who insisted on calling the great English General who had stayed at their farm "papa."

    The White Road to Verdun Kathleen Burke 1922

  • He speaks to them of his own little "nippers" at home and they in turn tell him of their father who is fighting, of their mother who now works in the fields, and of baby who is fearfully ignorant, does not know the difference between the

    The White Road to Verdun Kathleen Burke 1922

  • Suddenly the line flashed through his hand, stinging even through the "nippers," the woolen circlets supposed to protect it.

    Captains Courageous Rudyard Kipling 1900

  • At the ends of these thin legs were immense claws shaped like those of a lobster, and they were real "nippers" of a most dangerous sort.

    The Sea Fairies 1887

  • -- The Naudowesses, and the remote nations, pluck them out with bent pieces of hard wood, formed into a kind of nippers, whilst those who have communication with Europeans, procure from them wire, which they twist into a screw or worm; applying this to the part, they press the rings together, and with

    A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 16 Robert Kerr 1784

  • All NSW beaches were closed and water events such as nippers training were cancelled.

    Latest News - Yahoo!7 News 2010

  • "nippers" or the old mother is sick, he wants to go home.

    A Yankee in the Trenches Robert Derby Holmes

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