First recorded in 1870–75
First recorded in 1880–85
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He took out a nickel plate that bore his name.
From The Skipper and the Skipped Being the Shore Log of Cap'n Aaron Sproul by Day, Holman
The description of Barber's brace documents a major technical change: wood to steel, leather washers to ball bearings, and natural patina to nickel plate.
From Woodworking Tools 1600-1900 by Welsh, Peter C.
In the sense of the poet Goethe—that meek idolater of provincial three carat royalty and nobility—our press is certainly bankrupt in the "thrill of awe"—otherwise reverence; reverence for nickel plate and brummagem.
From The American Claimant by Twain, Mark
It was not a bath in the usual sense of water on tap, and shining nickel plate, but a bath for all that, where with premeditation and forethought one might bathe.
From The Street of Seven Stars by Rinehart, Mary Roberts
There was a huge fellow the nickel plate on whose cap announced that he was a piano mover.
From Turns about Town by Holliday, Robert Cortes
If it has a bone handle and nickel-plate finish besides, the customer cannot get his money out fast enough.
From Time Magazine Archive
The trick that had to be done was to nickel-plate them inside.
From Time Magazine Archive
"At the worst they can but scratch my beautiful nickel-plate," he said.
From The Marvelous Land of Oz by Baum, L. Frank (Lyman Frank)
Often Martie and Teddy had their supper at Childs', in the clean warm brightness of marble and nickel-plate.
From Martie, the Unconquered by Norris, Kathleen Thompson
It is all white tiling and shining nickel-plate, as easy to keep clean as a china dish, and just a delight to work in.
From The Little Colonel's Chum: Mary Ware by Barry, Etheldred B. (Etheldred Breeze)
Rogue Paq Poppy Party Ashtray – The ultimate host’s ashtray, the Poppy Party Ashtray looks like a beautiful poppy, in polished brass or nickel-plated finishes.
From Salon ● Apr. 18, 2025
For nearly two decades, karak — an elixir of sugar, dehydrated milk and cardamom-infused tea — has largely been the same price, just one nickel-plated steel dirham coin.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 24, 2022
Its rounded lower curve rested in Clark’s lap while he bear-hugged the nickel-plated instrument’s middle and the foot-thick bell horn bloomed above him.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 22, 2020
That honor goes to a nickel-plated, cigar-smoking duck he made for the 1978 movie “Convoy” about an armada of truckers who confront a crooked Arizona sheriff.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 27, 2017
He bowled two of them aside in his lunge for the nickel-plated microphone, his eyes glittering wildly and his beefy face contorted with stress.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
Faber invented the nickel-plating of pencil tips, pencil point protectors, rubber tips.
From Time Magazine Archive
She was constructed many years ago and her nickel-plating is nearly gone.
From The Circus, and Other Essays and Fugitive Pieces by Kilmer, Joyce
This is always done in factories where nickel-plating is carried on, but it is inconvenient in the laboratory.
From On Laboratory Arts by Threlfall, Richard
The idle passengers, by this time mostly on speaking terms, begin to let the common metal of their real make-up show through the nickel-plating of the first interchange of courtesies.
From All Aboard A Story for Girls by Newberry, Fannie E.
In the case of nickel-plating, the solution used is made from the double chloride or sulphate of nickel and ammonium, to which salt, sal-ammoniac, &c., may be added.
From The New Gresham Encyclopedia Volume 4, Part 2: Ebert to Estremadura by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
