nonce

Noun

nonce (plural nonces)

1. The one or single occasion; the present reason or purpose (now only in for the nonce).

   That will do for the nonce, but we'll need a better answer for the long term.

   • 1855, Robert Browning, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”, XXX:

     [...] Dunce, / Dotard, a-dozing at the very nonce, / After a life spent training for the sight!

   • 1857, Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers, chapter 6:

     'Idiot!' exclaimed the doctor, who for the nonce was not capable of more than such spasmodic attempts at utterance.

2. (lexicography) A nonce word.

   I had thought that the term was a nonce, but it seems as if it's been picked up by other authors.

Adjective

nonce (not comparable)

1. Denoting something occurring once.

Derived terms

• for the nonce
• nonce word
• nonce borrowing

Noun

nonce (plural nonces)

1. (Britain, slang, pejorative) A sex offender, especially one who is guilty of sexual offences against children.

   That bloke who lives at number 53 is a nonce!

2. (Britain, slang) A stupid or worthless person.

   Shut it, ya nonce!

Noun

nonce (plural nonces)

1. (cryptography) A value constructed so as to be unique to a particular message in a stream, in order to prevent replay attacks.

   In this protocol we use the serial number of the message as a nonce.

   • 1999, Network Working Group, RFC 2617 – HTTP Authentication: Basic and Digest Access Authentication, The Internet Society, page 22,

     The information gained by the eavesdropper would permit a replay attack, but only with a request for the same document, and even that may be limited by the server's choice of nonce.