nicks

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of nick.

   Years of use had left several nicks along the blade's edge.

   Her drop shots kept finding the nicks, leaving her opponent nothing to return.

   Note

   Only the countable meanings take this plural: fine deflections off the edge of a cricket bat, the corners where a court's wall meets the floor, single-stranded segments of DNA, the notches once cut in printers' type. The colloquial sense of condition, used in the UK, Ireland and the Commonwealth, stays singular in its set phrases, in good nick and in bad nick.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of nick.

   The chisel slips and nicks the edge of the cabinet door.

   The rear bumper nicks the garage wall every time she backs out in a hurry.

   Note

   Every current use of the verb is transitive, so this form always arrives with an object: the razor nicks his chin, the trolley nicks the paint. The damage is minor, a notch or scratch rather than a gash. Spelled the same as the plural noun, it shows which it is by position, following a subject and coming before an object.

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