Library / English Dictionary

NICKNAME

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A familiar name for a person (often a shortened version of a person's given name)

Example:

Henry's nickname was Slim

Synonyms:

byname; cognomen; moniker; nickname; sobriquet; soubriquet

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("nickname" is a kind of...):

appellation; appellative; denomination; designation (identifying word or words by which someone or something is called and classified or distinguished from others)

Derivation:

nickname (give a nickname to)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A descriptive name for a place or thing

Example:

the nickname for the U.S. Constitution is 'Old Ironsides'

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("nickname" is a kind of...):

name (a language unit by which a person or thing is known)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Give a nickname to

Synonyms:

dub; nickname

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "nickname" is one way to...):

be known as; call; know as; name (assign a specified (usually proper) proper name to)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody something

Sentence example:

They nickname him "Bobby"

Derivation:

nickname (a familiar name for a person (often a shortened version of a person's given name))

Credits

 Context examples: 

But it's actually the nickname for a unique and rare class of young exoplanets that have the density of cotton candy.

('Cotton Candy' Planet Mysteries Unravel in New Hubble Observations, NASA)

It seems the mechanism that produces the tentacles of gas and newborn stars that give these galaxies their nickname also makes it possible for the gas to reach the central regions of the galaxies, feeding the black hole that lurks in each of them and causing it to shine brilliantly.

(Supermassive Black Holes Feed on Cosmic Jellyfish, ESO)

Harrison was the Friar’s Oak blacksmith, and he had his nickname because he fought Tom Johnson when he held the English belt, and would most certainly have beaten him had the Bedfordshire magistrates not appeared to break up the fight.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Among the known exoplanets which reside in the abiogenesis zone are several planets detected by the Kepler telescope, including Kepler 452b, a planet that has been nicknamed Earth’s ‘cousin’, although it is too far away to probe with current technology.

(Scientists identify exoplanets where life could develop as it did on Earth, University of Cambridge)

This particular neutron star belongs to a group of seven nearby X-ray pulsars — nicknamed ‘the Magnificent Seven’ — that are hotter than they ought to be considering their ages and available energy reservoir provided by the loss of rotation energy, said Bettina Posselt, associate research professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Pennsylvania State.

(Hubble Uncovers Never-Before-Seen Features Around a Neutron Star, NASA)

The event - called AT2018cow and nicknamed the Cow after the coincidental final letters in its official name - is unlike any celestial outburst ever seen before, prompting multiple theories about its source.

(Mysterious Blast Studied with NASA Telescopes, NASA)

This much-enduring man had succeeded in banishing chewing gum after a long and stormy war, had made a bonfire of the confiscated novels and newspapers, had suppressed a private post office, had forbidden distortions of the face, nicknames, and caricatures, and done all that one man could do to keep half a hundred rebellious girls in order.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The galaxy has been nicknamed Rubin’s galaxy, after astronomer Vera Rubin (1928 – 2016), by Benne Holwerda of the University of Louisville, Kentucky, who observed the galaxy with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

(Hubble Surveys Gigantic Galaxy, NASA)

The betting was still steadily in favour of Wilson, for he had a number of bye-battles to set against this single victory of Jim’s, and it was thought by connoisseurs who had seen him spar that the singular defensive tactics which had given him his nickname would prove very puzzling to a raw antagonist.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Wilson stood in the position from which he had derived his nickname, his left hand and left foot well to the front, his body sloped very far back from his loins, and his guard thrown across his chest, but held well forward in a way which made him exceedingly hard to get at.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)