nicher

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   northern British and Scots dialect: to give a soft, suppressed, or sniggering laugh

   The disguised woman nichered a laugh beneath her bonnet.

2. 2
   verb

   Scots dialect: to neigh or whinny softly

   The pony nichered when it heard grain poured into the trough.

3. 3
   noun

   northern British and Scots dialect: a suppressed laugh or a horse's soft neigh

   A quiet nicher came from the listeners at the back of the room.

A northern English and Scots variant of nicker, an imitative word for a horse's soft neigh. The sound word also developed the human sense 'snigger or laugh under one's breath,' the sense used by Charlotte Bronte.

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images