"In the nick of time" or "in a nick of time?"

They both sound right and I've found examples of both.

Solution 1:

Definitely "the" nick of time. It is a specific thing - one chance. You don't get nicks of time.

Solution 2:

I believe the "in the nick of time" (the popular usage) is short for "In the last nick of time", with nick being a unit of measure. In which case, to do something at the last possible moment would be "in THE nick of time" or "in THE LAST nick of time", whereas to do something QUICKLY would be to do it "in A nick of time"

Solution 3:

I've always seen it as "the nick of time"

Could you give any examples of where 'a nick of time' has been used?

EDIT: After some more thought

I have always understood a nick to be a small piece of something, for example if I were to say

I took a nick out of my penknife blade

In which case using 'a nick' would be valid if you were to say say

There is a nick in my penknife blade

When referring to time you wouldn't be able to use 'a nick' in the same way as 'the nick' though