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In British, how do you say "to nickel and dime" someone? Given the currencies involved, it seems very unlikely to me that the same phrase is used here.

It doesn't mean penny-pinching, since while saving money is involved, the phrase is really about petty trivialities in transactions.

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There are 49 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

Ah, two nations divided by a common language...

Short change?

Not the same thing at all!

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No, that's cheating someone out of something. Nickling and diming involves swamping someone in trivial little transactions. If you're being nickled and dimed for a subway ride (hypothetically), you might pay to get into the system, pay extra to ride the escalator, pay extra if you want a seat, pay extra for the elevator at the other end, and then pay to get out - as opposed to just paying for the whole experience at one all-inclusive price.

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Would this apply to those push slot machined then as they require you feed them trivial change over a period of time to (play) try to win?

Is the process of slowly and meticulously spending money or does it have to relate to small change expenditure on small apparently trival things that add up.

Does this relate to 'take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themself'... or something like that!

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Would this apply to those push slot machined then as they require you feed them trivial change over a period of time to (play) try to win?

I'd say no, because it costs the same every time you play, and you're paying for the same experience each time, effectively.

Is the process of slowly and meticulously spending money or does it have to relate to small change expenditure on small apparently trival things that add up.

Small change expenditure on small apparently trival things that add up.

Does this relate to 'take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themself'... or something like that!

It's a relative, but it doesn't mean the same thing either. If you're taking care of the pennies, then you're trying to avoid being nickled and dimed.

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There might be cockney slang for it....

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Trying it on? Taking things a bit far? Over doing it? Laying it on a bit thick? These are all generic phrases that *might* be put to work in that situation...

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They're heading more in the right direction but I can't quite swap any of them in the particular context of the phrase I have in my head: "We're not trying to nickel and dime the vendors of the house we're trying to buy; in renegotiating the price, we're going for a price that includes the costs of all the bits and pieces that need repairing, rather than deducting each of them separately."

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There's no word because you'd never find such unsavoury activities going on in honest England!

I can't find a reference anywhere - maybe it's a highly regional thing, I dunno - but I'd swear blind that you can say "copper up" in the sense of "to pay, mostly with small change". It's not the same meaning, but I thought I'd mention it anyhow since it's another phrase that specifically refers to small denominations.

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Just shows I don't speak USian - I had no idea this is what it meant!

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Ditto.

I'd say death by a thousand cuts.

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Problem is, the phrase comes from one of the US revolutionaries (I forget which one) bitching about taxes--the issue that led to the revolution. So definitely not a transatlantic one. What do the British say about this?

I had no idea that's where it came from! Neat.

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I don't know. It's odd because the British are masters at it. Where else would you get charged extra for butter to put on your toast?

Maybe there isn't a word or phrase for it here? It seemed so likely that there would be.

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I don't know anywhere in Britain where that happens... doesn't sound very British to me, sounds more American from the description - what with all those toll roads an wotnot ;-p

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Britain has toll roads!

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Only a few... go to the EU mainland THEN you experience toll road :OP

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I don't know anywhere in Britain where that happens

Try the sort of place that has the butter in foil wrapped pats.

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jam is extra too! :OD (in some places :P)

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Despite being someone who's lived on both sides of the ocean, I've never heard that one, and have no idea what it means.

Opposite of big bucks according to Google... so it would be pennies in England.

Or an older term would be shrapnel... usually referring to the smallest coins - 1ps 2ps etc....

shrapnel = loose change Usually slightly derogatory and implies that lots of small denomination coins. Comes from military shrapnel, especially in the second world war. As in ‘I don’t have any notes so its all shrapnel’

according to http://plonkee.com/2007/07/31/british-money-slang/

Not sure this has exactly the same meaning as "to nickel and dime" tho :S

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Thank you for commenting on the origins of shrapnel. C.'s the only person I've ever consciously heard use the term, and then in laid back way, as in, "I'll just empty the shrapnel out of my pockets." It may have originated with baggage but it doesn't have it when C. uses it. The way he uses it, it doesn't correspond with "To nickel and dime", but his are the only instances I have to extrapolate from.

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I've always wondered what that phrase meant. I can't really think of an equivalent, though I suppose "we don't want to count every penny" might work. But even that has overtones of "penny-pinching" = frugality.

oooooh! Camberwick On Mars!

*waves back*

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Bled dry / bled white is about as close as I can come, but the metaphor is a bit strained considering the context you're talking about.

I have no idea. Frankly, you'd be the person *I* would ask! ;-)

hmmm ...a tough one. I think the whole phrase is "to nickle and dime something to death", which is kind of like bleeding someone dry -- except that that can be a constant drain.

My uni is great for nickle-ing and dime-ing people-- the other day, they refused to reimburse me for the tax on a water-filtering pitcher for my building, which a budget officer in the building had authorised. At first, they tried to refuse the whole thing, but then they just refused the tax. They will fund fairly expensive conferences, but only pay $25 per diem for meals ...

The sentiments of the phrase have a lot to do with wearing a person down.

Death of a thousand cuts! (Only without the death.) I'm quite sure that phrase works on both sides of the ocean.

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That or 'to bleed someone dry' are the two that seem closest to me.

I was thinking "a penny here, a penny there", but that's a neutral statement -- it's just a description of money going a way a little at a time.

"To nickel and dime someone" really describes the victimization of a person or group by charging them little bits here and there. The general situation that results is Vimes' Boots Theory -- people are in a financial state where they end up paying far more in small fees that seem affordable, but keep them behind.

Loosely, I can see applying the term to your real estate deal, but honestly, I'd just call it negotiation or haggling. I can think of really derogatory racial terms, but that's certainly not what you want.

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To pick at nits, nit picking? We're not going to be nit picking here? (That's nits as in louse eggs.) A bit old fashioned, perhaps (which is the way we used to say 'I guess').

That's a very good suggestion. It can be used in very similar ways, yes. I grew up with nit-picking. Would you also say "pick at nits" then? Do you use them interchangeably?

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Nope, because nit-picking has to do with an obsession with detail, but there is not necessarily a detrimental result.

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True.

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Maybe 'Nibbled to death by ducks'?

Flogged to death by scented bootlaces.

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It's to 'pick over the... something'. I can't think!

Tuppeny hapenny.

OK, it's a bit obsolete...

Do I win?

Oooh, that's a really interesting one. I'm not certain I knew it, but playing with Google gives some interesting hits. I particularly like "a tuppeny-hapenny storm in a teacup" as something that would be rather difficult to ever actually acquire. Especially at that price.

To what degree does it mean "on a shoestring budget" and to what degree is it "lots of small little worthless expenditures"? Certainly structurally, it's the best match yet!

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I always understood the english phrase in the context of "of negligible value". I thought that was what the American phrase meant too.

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I'd go with

coth and say 'nit-picking' is probably the nearest phrase, though that doesn't have the specific money-related implications.

Edited Date: 2008-04-22 09:40 am (UTC)

Er ... apropos of the reason you are looking for the proper expression, wouldn't "driving a hard bargain" work?

That accurately describes negotiation, but what we're specifically trying to avoid - as per the phrase - is getting into lots of small, individual deductions for specific things. We'd rather negotiate the whole package at one price, rather than ask for a bit off here for damp work, and a bit off there for structural uncertainties, gradually picking away at the price.

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Like the others up-thread, I don't think there's an exact equivalent in British English. In fact though I'd heard "nickel and diming" before, I wasn't totally sure of the meaning.

"Beating someone down" is somewhere near perhaps, but I suspect still not quite what you want? The "take a bit off here, take a bit off there" aspect could be covered by "beating someone down" but is perhaps a bit more forceful than "nickel and dime".

You could perhaps say, "We don't want to quibble over every detail, so we want to negotiate a price for the overall package."

Then there's the 50s slang that I picked up from my brothers: "Don't sweat the nickel/dime stuff." (Don't get upset over trivialities.)

You really do need to explain exactly what the phrase means!

*feeling narked again at Yanks saying "British". That was a Celtic language that developed into Welsh*

What term would you prefer I use? Not a language at all, but "In the UK" or perhaps even, to be extra-inclusive of the region, "In the British Isles"? Is "British English" okay? (Really, I do need approved alternatives to avoid British.)

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