nick

The itch of his Affection ſhould not then / Haue nickt his Captain-ſhip, at ſuch a point, / When halfe to halfe the world oppos'd, he being / The meered queſtion?

The itch of his affection should not then / Have marred his captainship, at such a point, / When half of the world was opposing the other half, he being / the crucial player?

The barbarous custom of docking and nicking the tail, and cutting the ears of horses, is too prevalent. … [I]n the loss of their tail, they find even a still greater inconvenience. During summer they are perpetually teazed with swarms of insects that either attempt to suck their blood or deposit their eggs in the rectum, which they have no means of lashing off; and in winter they are deprived of a necessary defence against the cold. [From the Boston Yankee.]

[I]t requires a Critical Nicety both of Wit, and of Judgment, to find out the Genius, or the Propenſions, of a Child, […] The Juſt Seaſon of Doing Things must be Nick'd, and All Accidents Obſerv'd and Improv'd; for Weak Minds are to be as Narrowly Attended, as Sickly Bodies: […]

Two balls later, I nick one and it carries beautifully to Peter Bowler at first slip, a complete dolly catch, and he drops it.

My old luck: I never nick'd ſeven that I did not throw ames ace three times following.

A practice then prevailed of blasting without nicking the side of the place which still continues and of conducting the current of air too far by means of brattice, to both of which practices I raised a strong objection. They admitted their inability to make the men nick the coal as they formerly did and thought the application of brattice could not be properly defined, but that it should be left to the discretion of the manager of each particular mine as to the distance openings should be made apart between the intake and return air courses.

Someone’s nicked my bike!

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