nickel

Etymology

Borrowed from German Nickel, first used in a text by the Swedish mineralogist Axel F. Cronstedt as an abbreviation of Kupfernickel (“a mineral containing copper and nickel”), from Kupfer (“copper”) + Nickel (“insignificant person, goblin”), originally nickname of Nikolaus (“Nicholas”), due to the deceptive silver colour of the relatively valueless ore. Compare cobalt as related to kobolds.

noun

1. (uncountable) A silvery elemental metal with an atomic number of 28 and symbol Ni.
2. (US, Canada, countable) A coin worth 5 cents.
   Coordinate term: dime
   That is just objectively terrifying regardless of contexts! He looks like if a nickel did cocaine! Oct 8 2017, “Confederacy”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 4, episode 26, John Oliver (actor), via HBO
3. (US, slang, by extension) Five dollars.
4. (US, slang, by extension) Five hundred dollars.
5. (US, slang, sometimes the nickel or the hot nickel) Interstate 5, a highway that runs along the west coast of the United States.
6. (slang) A playing card with the rank of five
7. (US, slang) A five-year prison sentence.
8. (American football) A defensive formation with five defensive backs, one of whom is a nickelback, instead of the more common four.
9. (UK, World War II) An airborne propaganda leaflet.
   Colonel Hazeltine still had trouble persuading air commanders to drop the nickels. Pilots profanely protested against risking their necks on such foolishness. But in the end 15,000,000 leaflets a week were being dropped on Sicily and Italy. 1945, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 217, Curtis Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 79
   Many types of nickels were used in psychological warfare. Classified according to general purpose, there were strategic and tactical leaflets. 1948, The Army Air Forces in World War II, volume 3, Office of Air Force History, page 495
   Nickels, the code-name for propaganda leaflets, were ordinary 8-1/2×11" sheets of paper either printed on both sides or folded in half and printed on all four sides. […] On most of our flights, after leaving the DZ or landing strip we distributed 150 to 450 pounds of nickels over designated areas, and a few of our missions were nickel runs only. 2010, Richard H. Kraemer, The Secret War in the Balkans, Author House, page 136

adj

1. (US, idiomatic, somewhat dated) Synonym of cheap: Low price and/or low value.
   Let me give you the nickel tour of the office.

verb

1. (transitive) To plate with nickel.
2. (UK, World War II) To distribute airborne leaflet propaganda.
   The 422d Bombardment Squadron extended the scope of its operations considerably in April and "attacked" Norwegian targets with the leaflet bomb. The number of cities nickeled per mission also increased until it was common for fifteen to twenty-five to be scheduled as targets for a five-plane mission. 1948, The Army Air Forces in World War II, volume 3, Office of Air Force History, pages 496–497
   We flew numerous nickeling missions over the population centers of Southern France, dropping thousands of pounds of leaflets. 1966, Monro MacCloskey, Secret Air Missions, R. Rosen Press, →OCLC, page 36
   From southern Greece to northern Italy, nickeling supplied both occupied peoples and their occupiers with fairly frequent and generally accurate reports of the war — in many cases, their only authoritative source of information. 2010, Richard H. Kraemer, The Secret War in the Balkans, Author House, page 136