nickel
/ˈnɪk(ə)l
/noun
1 [mass noun] A silvery-white metal, the chemical element of atomic number 28. (Symbol: Ni) Metals like silver, nickel and gold are a perfect medium for coinage because of their durability and the value accorded by their relative rarity....
- We are already exporting gold and we have substantial resources of silver, uranium, nickel, cobalt, the deposits of which need further investigation.
- When waste oils are burned in incinerators, toxic metals such as nickel, vanadium and cadmium get ensnared in the particles given off into the atmosphere.
Nickel occurs naturally in various minerals and the earth’s core is believed to consist largely of metallic iron and nickel. Its chief use is in alloys, especially with iron, to which it imparts strength and resistance to corrosion, and with copper for coinage.
2North American A five-cent coin; five cents: a button the size of a nickel we will see gasoline prices go up about a nickel...
- Here we have ten coins: pennies, nickels, and dimes.
- You have five quarters, two nickels, three dimes and a penny in your pocket.
- There on the counter, the boy had left two nickels and five pennies.
verb (nickels, nickelling, nickelled; US nickels, nickeling, nickeled) [with object] (usually as adjective nickelled)
Coat with nickel: heavily nickelled iron castings...
- Riggs had executed scrollwork on more than 75 percent of the big Smith and then had it satin nickeled to better show off the engraving.
- The gun that came out of Devel as a Basic Combat Conversion, shortened and electroless nickeled, looked like it grew that size, but still packed a punch.
Derivatives
nickelic
/ adjective ...- In the early 1900's Thomas Edison developed the alkaline cell using iron and nickelic oxide.
- The amount of free cadmium in the oversized plate is matched to discharge in step with the amount of nickelic hydroxide provided in the positive plate.
- Nickel Cadmium batteries work by oxidizing nickelic hydroxide into nickelous hydroxide, which produces two free electronics for every transaction.
nickelous
- Garrett Solyom, in his book The World of the Javanese Keris, describes the kris as long asymmetrical daggers with distinctive blade-patterning achieved through alternating laminations of iron and pamor (nickelous iron).
- The formation of nickelous ions substituted magnetite was enhanced with a decrease in the oxygen bubbling rate.
- The spherical nickelous hydroxide which is dopped, according to present invention, has advantages of uniform size and narrow size distribution.
Origin
Mid 18th century: shortening of German Kupfernickel, the copper-coloured ore from which nickel was first obtained, from Kupfer 'copper' + Nickel 'demon' (with reference to the ore's failure to yield copper).