A drink of liquor. According to Grose, a nip of ale is a half-pint.
1855. One of our Western villages passed an ordinance forbidding taverns to sell liquor on the Sabbath to any persons except travelers. The next Sunday every man in town who wanted a “nip” was seen walking around with a valise in one hand and two carpet bags in the other!—Harper’s Mag., x. 852/2 (May).
1878. Yet Cal was a shiftless, thriftless fellow: shrewd, witty, keen-sighted, and—lazy. He loved to roam over the land with rod or gun, to lie on the fragrant sand of a pine wood, and sleep away sultry noons, to hang about the big stove in the store in cold weather, and take a hot “nip” of rum toddy, while he told and heard stories and cracked jokes; but how he hated to plough, to hoe, to chop, to break stone, to mow, to tend mill!—Rose T. Cooke, ‘Cal Culver and the Devil,’ id., lvii. 575/1 (Sept.).
