nugget

plural nuggets

1. countableA small, compact chunk or clump.

   a gold nugget

   1 more example

   Rough men brought pickle bottles full of nuggets. Mysterious dirty-looking calico bags were opened, disclosing small quantities of water-worn flaky gold, which had been washed out of the beds of rivers with a cradle.

   1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 146

2. countableA chicken nugget.

   By now, we hope you have said “no” to processed nuggets and fingers. Instead, how about taking some real chicken, tossing it with real eggs, a little tangy mustard, and a crunchy quinoa coating?

   2014, Laurie David, The Family Cooks

3. countableA tidbit of something valuable.

   a nugget of truth

   2 more examples

   a nugget of wisdom

   As he has in superb works like “The Source” (based on the Afghanistan war logs leaked by Chelsea Manning) and “Sound From the Bench” (which set excerpts from Supreme Court proceedings), Hearne takes these found-text nuggets and gives them music that moves from lushly meditative to frenetic and obsessively repetitive […]

   2023 July 10, Zachary Woolfe, “Review: Ted Hearne’s Sweet, Sad American Elegy”, in The New York Times

4. countableA small piece of tasty food, a tidbit.
5. uncountableA type of boot polish.
6. countableA bud from the Cannabis sativa plant, especially one that is potent.
7. countableslangAn inexperienced, newly trained fighter pilot.

   Jack stifled a smirk at the ensign's expressionless non-reaction. He'd been a nugget himself once, the new guy fresh from training.

   2009, Nick Scipio, Nereids

8. countableuncountablecomputingA partial description gleaned from data mining.

   We have previously said that the heuristic algorithms produce good nuggets for most classes and most λ values […]

   2002, Data Mining: A Heuristic Approach, (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 93

9. countableoffensiveslangA person with no arms or legs; a basket case.
10. AustraliacountableslangAn item that is typically old and of dubious quality or poor condition.

present singular third person nuggets · participle present nuggeting · participle present rare nuggetting · participle past nuggeted · past nuggeted · participle past rare nuggetted · past rare nuggetted

1. To find nuggets (of something valuable)

   The other day, you are told, a fellow nuggetted ten or twenty pounds weight, and, of course, you see no reason why half a hundred weight might not be lying snugly ensconced awaiting the revelations of your pick.

   1852, James Bonwick, Notes of a Gold Digger: and Gold Digger's Guide, Melbourne: R. Connebee, page 8

2. AustraliaNew ZealandslangTo smear a male's genitals or anus with boot polish or similar substance against his will.

   1 more example

   Among the complaints to Dart, “blackballing” or “nuggetting” was the most common form of sexual abuse carried out by recruits, and referred to a boy being forcibly held down “while boot polish, toothpaste or another substance was forcibly smeared on his genitals or anal area, sometimes with a hard brush.”

   2014 June 17, Helen Davidson, “Blackballing and blanket beatings: decades of abuse at defence training school revealed”, in The Guardian, →ISSN