Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A water sprite of German mythology, usually in human form or half-human and half-fish.
  • noun Nothing.
  • adverb Not so; no.
  • transitive verb To forbid, refuse, or veto.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In Teut, myth., a water-spirit, good or bad. The Scotch water-kelpie is a wicked nix. Also written nis.
  • noun Nothing; as an answer, nothing; also, by extension, as adverb, no.
  • noun See the quotation.
  • An exelamation of alarm used by thieves, street Arabs, and others: as, nix, the bobby! (policeman).

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

  • (Teut. Myth.) One of a class of water spirits, commonly described as of a mischievous disposition.

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

  • noun colloquial : nothing.
  • verb To make something become nothing; to reject or cancel.
  • verb To destroy or eradicate.
  • noun A treacherous water-spirit; a nixie.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a quantity of no importance
  • verb command against

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[German, from Middle High German nickes, from Old High German nihhus.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[German dialectal, from Middle High German nihtes, genitive of niht, from Old High German niwiht : ni, not, no; see ne in Indo-European roots + wiht, thing; see wekti- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From German nix, colloquial form of nichts ("nothing"). Compare also Dutch niks ("nothing"), informal for niets ("nothing"). More at naught.

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Examples

  • _Course_, it's nix on Junior, an 'it's _nix_ on Peter if you say so.

    Michael O'Halloran Gene Stratton-Porter 1893

  • The male is called nix, the female nixie, the generic term for both being nicker, from a root which perhaps means ‘to wash.

    Hero Tales and Legends of the Rhine Lewis Spence 1914

  • She alsovoted against the torture bill, co-signed the Restore the Constitution Act which would restore habeas corpus and "nix" the immunity for war crime status granted the PResident in the torture bill, etc ....

    Rebuttals to Reasons NOT to Impeach 2007

  • She alsovoted against the torture bill, co-signed the Restore the Constitution Act which would restore habeas corpus and "nix" the immunity for war crime status granted the PResident in the torture bill, etc ....

    Rebuttals to Reasons NOT to Impeach 2007

  • Education (tho my kids will not be going to public school like I did, so you can kind of nix that one) 4.

    tell me why-yi-yi-yi 2004

  • a little Phœnix, which is destined to live as many years.

    The Metamorphoses of Ovid Literally Translated into English Prose, with Copious Notes and Explanations 43 BC-18? Ovid 1847

  • You're right, the "ex" seems to kind of nix it all.

    AustralianIT.com.au | Top Stories 2010

  • I have bought the copyright to "nix" .... you're all screwed.

    PCLinuxOS-Forums 2009

  • Oh wait, the guy who sold it to me will say he only sold me the rights to use the three letters "nix" and not the copyright itself and it will cost millions to settle it, one way or the other, but once it is settled ..... you're all screwed.

    PCLinuxOS-Forums 2009

  • Oh wait, the guy who sold it to me will say he only sold me the rights to use the three letters "nix" and not the copyright itself and it will cost millions to settle it, one way or the other, but once it is settled ..... you're all screwed.

    PCLinuxOS-Forums 2009

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