nickels

1. a silvery-white metal, the chemical element of atomic number 28.
2. a five-cent coin; five cents.

   a button the size of a nickel

   we will see gasoline prices go up about a nickel

1. coat with nickel.

   it's far easier to copper an article than to nickel it

mid 18th century: shortening of German Kupfernickel, the copper-coloured ore from which nickel was first obtained, from Kupfer ‘copper’ + Nickel ‘demon’ (with reference to the ore's failure to yield copper).