nim

¹ American  

[nim] / nɪm /

verb (used with or without object)

Archaic.

nimmed, nimming

1. to steal or pilfer.

---

nim ² American  

[nim] / nɪm /

noun

1. a game in which two players alternate in drawing counters, pennies, or the like, from a set of 12 arranged in three rows of 3, 4, and 5 counters, respectively, the object being to draw the last counter, or, sometimes, to avoid drawing it.

---

nim British  

/ nɪm /

noun

1. a game in which two players alternately remove one or more small items, such as matchsticks, from one of several rows or piles, the object being to take (or avoid taking) the last item remaining on the table

---

Etymology

Origin of nim¹

before 900; Middle English nimen, Old English niman, cognate with German nehmen, Old Norse nema, Gothic niman to take; cf. numb

Origin of nim²

First recorded in 1900–05; special use of nim ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

nim nimmed nimming

As Mahaut looks at her husband, she sees nim at last for what he is.

From Time Magazine Archive

They were then looking for nim any moment Edna hastened upstairs by a private stairway that led from the rear of the store to the apartments above.

From "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin

One night, when the cavalcade was halted in the very village whence Nur Mahal had turned northwards with such quick vagary, an owl hooted from the depths of a nim tree.

From The Great Mogul by Tracy, Louis

This is the way the ladies go— Nim, nim, nim.

From Aunt Kitty's Stories by Howard, Justin H.

But unwilling to commit such a work to an inferior hand, we made nim an ultimate proposition on our part.

From Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 1 by Randolph, Thomas Jefferson

One of the soldiers called, “Did you tell the fiddler, ’twas us nimmed his cheese?”

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson

She saw them rise to wail out the hymn; saw Mr. Strachey on his chair in the middle of the floor, perpetually nimming with his left leg.

From The Getting of Wisdom by Richardson, Henry Handel