介紹: NICKLE N I C K LE 鎳 是美元中五分錢的硬幣

Dime D I M E是美元中十分錢的鑄幣

dime是值十美分的硬幣。 dime的價值雖然是nickel的兩倍， 但是dime也只是一枚很小的硬幣，而且dime跟 nickel相比是既小又薄，原因是過去曾經用比鎳貴重得多的銀子來鑄造dime。

Nickle-and-dime can be used as a verb, and it can also be used as an adjective. Let’s see what does it mean by knowing some examples. Suppose a dad is complaining about his kids that they often ask him for money.

Nickel-and-dime既可以被當作一個動詞來用，也可以作為一個形容詞。我們還是通過例句來領會它的意思吧。先看一位爸爸在抱怨自己兩個十多歲的子女老向父母要零花錢，數目雖然不大， 但是長年累月、積少成多，也成為負擔了。請注意他話里的習慣用語nickel-and-dime是個復合動詞：

例句1：Our kids Bill and Susie nickel-and-dime my wife and me to death. It's just a few dollars every time, but it never stops and after a while it adds up to so much money it makes quite a hole in our pockets.

他說：他們的孩子Bill和Susie老問他和太太來要零花錢，煩得要命。雖然每回只是幾美元，但是沒完沒了，長此以往， 就成了一大筆錢，好象他們口袋里有個窟窿似的。

這段話里的復合動詞nickel-and-dime意思顯然是零打碎敲地長期消耗，而花費了大筆錢財。剛才說過習慣用語nickel-and-dime也可以當形容詞用。比方說，在這句話里：

例句2：He has a little nickle-and-dime business that makes just enough money to put food on the table and pay the rent.

這句話是說一個人有個小本經營的小買賣，掙來的錢剛夠飯錢和房租。

這里的nickle-and-dime描繪business，是形容詞，意思就是“小本經營的”，或者“微不足道的”