DCHP-1 Online

nipper ((2)) 2

• n. the person responsible for getting equipment and material from the station to the work-place, that is, the spot where the mining operation is being carried out.

  See also: call-boy  king-nipper  

  • Clearly an extension of the British nipper "helper" (usually a youngster, from which is derived the slang sense "boy, lad").

  • 1963  Only difference was when the nipper came down with the second bucketful of starters, that damned spot had grown up two inches.
  • 1964  Another occupational term that bears the stamp of British origin is "nipper," a nipper being originally a boy brought into the coal mines, usually as his father's helper. To-day the nipper is an expediter of materials used in the mine.