Nief
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A serf or bondsman born into servitude. historical
"That is, because the girl was his nief, or bondwoman, the daughter of one of his villains"
- 2 A clenched hand; fist. Ireland, Northern-England, Scotland
"Ake thought if ever he was walking alone on a dark-like night and Jimmy came on him, he with his bare nieves and Jimmy with a knife, he'd stand as much chance of getting home safe as a celluloid cat that had strayed into hell[…]."
- 3 A handful or fistful. Ireland, Northern-England, Scotland
- 4 The handgrip of a sword or oar. Ireland, Northern-England, Scotland
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"That is, because the girl was his nief, or bondwoman, the daughter of one of his villains"
Etymology
From Old French [Term?], from Latin nativus (“natural”). Doublet of naif and native.
From Middle English neve (“the clenched hand, fist”), from Old Norse nefi, hnefi (also knefi) ("hand, fist, handful"), from Proto-Germanic *hnefô, from Proto-Indo-European *knep- (“to scrape, scratch, grind”), from Proto-Indo-European *ken- (“to scratch, scrape”). Cognate with Scots neif (“fist”), Norwegian neve, Danish næve, Swedish näve, Middle High German nevemez (“handful”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.