nugget

Probably a diminutive of dialectal nug (“lump, block”) +‎ -et.

• enPR: nŭg'ət, IPA^(key): /ˈnʌɡət/

• Audio (AU)

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nugget (countable and uncountable, plural nuggets)

1. (countable) A small, compact chunk or clump.
   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 146:

     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.

   a gold nugget

2. (countable) A chicken nugget.
   • 2014, Laurie David, The Family Cooks:

     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?

3. (countable) A tidbit of something valuable.

   a nugget of wisdom

   a nugget of truth

4. (countable) A small piece of tasty food, a tidbit.
5. (uncountable) A type of boot polish.
6. (countable) A bud from the Cannabis sativa plant, especially one that is potent.
7. (countable, slang) An inexperienced, newly trained fighter pilot.
   • 2009, Nick Scipio, Nereids‎:

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

8. (computing theory) A partial description gleaned from data mining.
   • 2002, Data Mining: A Heuristic Approach, (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 93:

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

9. (slang, countable) A person with no arms or legs; a basket case.

• chicken nugget
• nugg
• nuggetlike
• nuggies
• nugget of truth
• nuggety

• → Portuguese: nugget

Unadapted borrowing from English nugget.

nugget m (plural nuggets)

1. chicken nugget

For quotations using this term, see Citations:nugget.