flipper vs nick

flipper

noun
  • A flat lever in a pinball machine, triggered by the player to strike the ball and keep it in play. 

  • Television remote control, clicker. 

  • A type of ball bowled by a leg spin bowler, which spins backwards and skids off the pitch with a low bounce. 

  • A kind of false tooth, usually temporary. 

  • A small flat used to support a larger one. 

  • Someone who flips, in the sense of buying a house or other asset and selling it quickly for profit. 

  • Someone who flips in any other sense, for example throwing a coin. 

  • In marine mammals such as whales, a wide flat limb, adapted for swimming. 

  • A flat, wide, paddle-like rubber covering for the foot, used in swimming. 

  • A kitchen spatula. 

verb
  • To lift one or both flippers out of the water and slap the surface of the water. 

nick

noun
  • A small deflection of the ball off the edge of the bat, often going to the wicket-keeper for a catch. 

  • The point where the wall of the court meets the floor. 

  • One of the single-stranded DNA segments produced during nick translation. 

  • Often in the expressions in bad nick and in good nick: condition, state. 

  • A police station or prison. 

verb
  • To make a cut at the side of the face. 

  • To make a nick or notch in; to cut or scratch in a minor way. 

  • To make ragged or uneven, as by cutting nicks or notches in; to deface, to mar. 

  • To steal. 

  • To arrest. 

  • To make a crosscut or cuts on the underside of (the tail of a horse, in order to make the animal carry it higher). 

How often have the words flipper and nick occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )