niceteet

A Middle English form of nicety. nicety (ni'se-ti), n.; pl. niceties (-tiz). [ He halt hit a nycete and a foul shame To beggen other to bor we bote of God one. Piers Plowman (C), xvii. 370. Now, parde, fol, yet were it bet for the Han holde thy pes than shewed thy nysete . Chaucer , Parliament of Fowls, 1. 572. 2. Fastidiousne ; extreme or exce ive delicacy; squeamishne . So love doth loathe disdainful nicety . Spenser. Pray, Mr. Thomas, what is it all of a sudden offends your Nicety at our house? Steele, Conscious Lovers, i. 1. That, perhaps, may be owing to his nicety . Great men are not easily satisfied. Goldsmith , Good-natured Man, ii. If you wish your wife to be the pink of nicety , you should clear your court of dem i-reputations. R. L. Stevens on, Prince Otto, ii. 10. nicify -tulus to It. -cchio (as in vecchio, IMG:content-1351.jpg:[graphic] Niche in central pier of great western portal, Amiens Cathedral, France; 13th century. sical architecture sometimes also square in plan. They were ornamented with pillars, architraves, and consoles, and in other ways. In the architecture of the middle ages niches were extensively used in decoration and for the reception of statues. In the Romanesque style they were so shallow as to be little more than panels, and the figures were frequently carved on the back in high relief. In the Pointed style they became more deeply rece ed, and were highly enriched with elaborate canopies, and often much acce ory ornament. In plan they are most frequently a semi-octagon or a semi-hexagon, and their heads are formed of groined vaulting, with bo es and pendants according to the prevalent architecture of the time. They are often projected on corbels, and adorned with pillars, buttre es, and various moldings. Compare cut under gallery. In each of the niches are two statues of a man and woman in alto-relievo. Pococke, Description of the East, II. i. 134. There are niches, it is true, on each side of the gateway, like those found at Marttand and other Pagan temples; but, like those at Ahmedabad, they are without images. J. Fergu on, Hist. Indian Arch., p. 81. 3. Nice discrimination; delicacy of perception; Hence-2. Figuratively, a position or condition acutene . Nor was this Nicety of His [the Earl of Dorset's] Judgment confined only to Books and Literature; but was the same in Statuary, Painting, and all other Parts of Art. Prior , Poems, Ded. 4. A nice distinction; a refinement; a subtlety; a fine-drawn point or criticism. Thus much for the terme, though not greatly pertinent to the matter, yet not vnpleasant to know for them that delight in such nicities . in which a person or thing is placed; one's a igned or appropriate place. After every deduction has been made, the work fills a niche of its own, and is without competitor. Booke of Precedence (E. E. T. S., extra ser.), p. 49, note. niche (nich), v. t.; pret. and pp. niched , ppr. niching . [ niche , n.] 1. To furnish with a niche or with niches.-2. To place in a niche, literally or figuratively. At length I came within sight of them,. Putten ham , Arte of Eng. Poesie, p. 210. These are nicities that become not those that peruse so serious a mystery. Sir T. Browne , Religio Medici, i. 22. Pray stay not on Niceties , but be advis'd. Steele, Grief A-la-Mode, iii. 1. .. where they sat cosily niched into what you might call a bunker, a little sand-pit, dry and snug, and surrounded by its banks. Scott, Red gauntlet, letter x. So you see my position, and why I am niched here for life, as a schoolmaster. H. B. Stowe, Oldtown, p. 227. Those niched shapes of noble mould. Tennyson, The Daisy. 5. Delicacy; exactne ; accuracy; precision. By his own nicety of observation he had already formed such a system of metrical harmony as he never afterwards nichelt, n. See nichil . much needed, or much endeavoured, to improve. Johnson, Waller. nichert, n. An obsolete form of nicker3 . She touched the imperious fantastic humour of the charnichilt, nichelt, n. [ nichil , acter with nicety. Lamb, Old Actors. Conscience is harder than our enemies, Knows more, accuses with more nicety . George Eliot , Spanish Gypsy. His [Grey's] nicety in the use of vowel-sounds. Lowell, New Princeton kev., I. 169. 6. A dainty or delicacy; something rare or choice: usually in the plural. Of these maner of nicetees ye shal finde in many places of our booke. Putten ham , Arte of Eng. Poesie, p. 111. 7. Nice appearance; agreeablene of appearance. - To a nicety, to a turn; with great exactne . nicht, adv . [ME., lit. 'not I,' ne , not, +-ic, I.] No. niche (nich), n. [F. niche , nicchia , a niche, a rece in a wall likened to the hollow of a shell, nothing: see nihil, nil2.] Nothing; in old Eng. law, a corrupt form of the Latin nihil, used by a sheriff in making return that a ets or debtors are worthle . - Clerk of the nichels. See clerk.