Definition of "nipper" in English

noun

1. One who, or that which, nips.

2. (usually in the plural) Any of various devices (as pincers) for nipping.

3. (British, informal) A child.

4. (Australia) A child aged from 5 to 13 in the Australian surf life-saving clubs.

   • 2003 Some Like It Hot: The Beach As a Cultural Dimension SLSA has become a multi-million dollar enterprise comprising 262 clubs located around the Australian coastline, with 100000 members, which included thousands of juniors or 'nippers', as they were more commonly known.
   • 2009, Didgeridoos and Didgeridon'ts: A Brit 's Guide to Moving Your Life Down Under Every club around Australia offers a Nippers programme. Nippers is open to children from the age of 5 through to 13 years old […]
   • The Nippers program, for children aged five to thirteen, promotes water safety skills and confidence in a safe beach environment
   • September 5, 2013, Eve Jeffery, "Nippers season begins on the north coast", in Echonetdaily Of our movement’s 153,000 members, over 58,500 are nippers (5-13 years). This equates to nearly 40% of our total membership and shows just how significant the junior movement is within surf lifesaving.

5. (historical) A boy working as a navvies' assistant.

6. (Canada, slang, Newfoundland) A mosquito.

7. (archaic) One of four foreteeth in a horse.

8. (obsolete) A satirist.

9. (obsolete, slang) A pickpocket; a young or petty thief.

10. A fish, the cunner.

11. (archaic) A European crab (Polybius henslowii).

12. The claws of a crab or lobster.

13. A young bluefish.

14. (dated) A machine used by a ticket inspector to stamp passengers' tickets.

15. One of a pair of automatically locking handcuffs.

16. (historical) One of the gloves or mittens worn by fishermen to protect their hands from cold and abrasion.

verb

1. (nautical, transitive) To seize (two ropes) together.