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nipper

The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea | 2006 | Copyright

nipper.
1. A short length of rope, usually braided or marled from end to end, which was used to bind the anchor cable temporarily to a messenger when in the days of sail the anchor was weighed by hand round the capstan.

2. Boys or men who worked the nippers when the anchors were being weighed were called nippers.

3. When the yards of square-rigged ships were wet and slippery, nippers were often used to form slings for them when they were hoisted.

4. A hammock lashed up with so little bedclothing in it that it would not stand on end in a hammock netting was also known as a nipper.

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nipper

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | 2009 | Copyright

nip·per / ˈnipər/ • n. 1. inf. a child, esp. a small boy. 2. (nippers) pliers, pincers, forceps, or a similar tool for gripping or cutting. 3. an insect or other creature that nips or bites. ∎ (usu. nippers) the grasping claw of a crab or lobster.

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nipper

Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes | 2007 | Copyright

nipper •Agrippa, chipper, clipper, dipper, equipper, flipper, gripper, hipper, kipper, nipper, Pippa, ripper, shipper, sipper, skipper, slipper, stripper, tipper, tripper, whipper, zipper •crimper, shrimper, simper, whimper, Whymper •crisper, whisper •mudskipper • caliper • Philippa •juniper • gossiper •worshipper (US worshiper) •griper, piper, sniper, swiper, viper, wiper •bagpiper • sandpiper •bopper, chopper, copper, cropper, Dopper, dropper, hopper, improper, Joppa, poppa, popper, proper, shopper, stopper, swapper, topper, whopper •stomper • prosper • bebopper •teenybopper • grasshopper •clodhopper • sharecropper •name-dropper • eavesdropper •window-shopper • doorstopper •show-stopper •gawper, pauper, torpor, warper

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

	Baltimore's Nipper to get new `doghouse'.(Metropolitan Times) Newspaper article from: The Washington Times (Washington, DC); 2/7/1998
	Bathing Nipper.(on being southern) Magazine article from: Mississippi Magazine; 7/1/2010
	Shock grows with news of school's end Nipper staff unhappy to hear of... Newspaper article from: Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL); 2/28/2004