The adjective nice has various dialectal uses in Ireland, England and Scotland. First of all it means over-particular; fastidious, especially with regard to food; precise in manner; sensitive. Sharpe's Ballad Book, published in Edinburgh in 1823 has, "The lasses o' the Cannongate, O they ae wondrous nice. They winna gie a single kiss, But for a double price." The English Dialect Dictionary (EDD) has this: "No, don't be nice; help yoursells!," recorded in Yorkshire. Baring-Gould's Spider, written in Devon in 1887, has, "I should get it back again if I were you, and not be too nice about the means." "He's more nice nor wise" was recorded in Yorkshire. This also came from Yorkshire: "Ah deean't like folk 'at's sae nice about what they eat." And from Lincolnshire the EDD has, "The mare won't be nice about kickin' this morning."

Hence nice chance, a narrow escape, a near miss. A Devonshire farmer was recorded as saying, "It was a nice chance that you hadden broked your neck." From Cornwall the EDD has, "It was a nice chance I didn't throw it in the fire." There is also the compound nice-mouthed, which means dainty. "They be too nice-mouthed now to eat barley bread," was recorded in Worcestershire.'

The EDD says that the meaning, difficult, critical, "ticklish", is obsolete, but I've heard things like, "At this nice point in the negotiations, he lost his temper and walked out," in west Waterford and in south Wexford.

In parts of Yorkshire nice means strange, out-of-the way. "I hear you are a glider pilot. Isn't that nice work for a grown man?" In Ayrshire and in Co Cavan nice means handsome, pretty. The EDD has this from Cavan: "Kate is a well-mannered girl but not nice."

A Lancashire song has the line, “I am black, but nice, O ye dowters a Jeruslem.”

Hence niceness, a difficulty, critical nature. The EDD quotes from a Renfrewshireman's correspondence, c. 1720: "He excused it a little from the importance of what was before us, and the niceness . . . of some things we had been on."

There is also the phrase a nice few, found in Ireland and in England, and meaning a fairly large number: "There was a nice few people at the meeting."

The adverb nicely means well, or improving in health; in good order. In Ayrshire it means accurately; exactly. Robert Burns in Author's Cry (1786) wrote: "Some of you nicely ken the laws To round the period and pause." "That will do nicely," is common everywhere in Ireland.

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