in the nick of time
informal phrase

- If you say that something happens in the nick of time, you are emphasizing that it happens at the last possible moment.

Collins CoBuild DIctionary

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ORIGIN

Back in the days, before calculators and computers, nicks in tally-sticks (Kerbhölzer) were often used to keep track of any sort of numerical data, from commercial accounts to the scores at sporting matches.

The British Government used tally-sticks to record government loans until the early 1800s,

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Besides the short form of Nicholas, here are a few other expressions involving nick:
 
- The Devil = Nick (or Old Nick)
- to steal, or stolen =  nick, or nicked
- police station, prison = the nick
- naked = in the nick

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TALKING POINT

Physicist James Franck was among the professors who examined the brilliant twenty-three-year-old Robert Oppenheimer for his doctorate at Goettingen University. Upon emerging from the oral examination, Franck appeared somewhat shaken. “I got out of there IN THE NICK OF TIME,” the professor explained. “He was beginning to ask me questions!”

Oppenheimer, Robert (1902-1967) American physicist; director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, New Jersey (1947-1966) noted for his supervision of the Manhattan Project, the development of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos during World War II (1942-1945).

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation, say something like:

"Our proposal was submitted to the client IN THE NICK OF TIME."

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Thanks to Brigitte for today's word