Chapter Newborn to Nick of N by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

Nicety
(Ni"ce*ty) n.; pl. Niceties [OE. niceté foolishness.]

1. The quality or state of being nice

The miller smiled of her nicety.

Chaucer.

2. Delicacy or exactness of perception; minuteness of observation or of discrimination; precision.

3. A delicate expression, act, mode of treatment, distinction, or the like; a minute distinction.

The fineness and niceties of words.

Locke.

To a nicety, with great exactness or accuracy.

Niche
(Niche) n. [F., fr. It. nicchia, prop., a shell-like recess in a wall, fr. nicchio a shellfish, mussel, fr. L. mytilus.] A cavity, hollow, or recess, generally within the thickness of a wall, for a statue, bust, or other erect ornament. hence, any similar position, literal or figurative.

Images defended from the injuries of the weather by niches of stone wherein they are placed.

Evelun.

Niched
(Niched). a. Placed in a niche. "Those niched shapes of noble mold." Tennyson.

Nick
(Nick) n. [AS. nicor a marine monster; akin to D. nikker a water spite, Icel. nykr, ONG. nihhus a crocodile, G. nix a water sprite; cf. Gr. to wash, Skr. nij. Cf. Nix.] (Northern Myth.) An evil spirit of the waters.

Old Nick, the evil one; the devil. [Colloq.]

Nick
(Nick), n. [Akin to Nock.]

1. A notch cut into something; as: (a) A score for keeping an account; a reckoning. [Obs.] (b) (Print.) A notch cut crosswise in the shank of a type, to assist a compositor in placing it properly in the stick, and in distribution. W. Savage.

(c) A broken or indented place in any edge or surface; nicks in china.

2. A particular point or place considered as marked by a nick; the exact point or critical moment.

To cut it off in the very nick.

Howell.

This nick of time is the critical occasion for the gainger of a point.

L'Estrange.

Nick
(Nick), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Nicked ; p. pr. & vb. n. Nicking.]

1. To make a nick or nicks in; to notch; to keep count of or upon by nicks; as, to nick a stick, tally, etc.

2. To mar; to deface; to make ragged, as by cutting nicks or notches in.

And thence proceed to nicking sashes.

Prior.

The itch of his affection should not then
Have nicked his captainship.

Shak.

3. To suit or fit into, as by a correspondence of nicks; to tally with.

Words nicking and resembling one another are applicable to different significations.

Camden.