Can ‘nickel and dime’ be used for the object not related with money?
There was the following sentence in the pretty old article of Daily Finance titled “How to avoid getting nickel and dimed with fee:
“These days, it seems as if everyone's trying to squeeze every penny out of us. From banks to colleges, American consumers are being nickeled and dimed like never before. Here are some of the biggest offenders, and your best defense against them.”
OALD at hand defines hyphenated ‘nickel-and-dime’ as an adjective (Ame. informal) ‘involving only a small amount of money; not important.’
Oxford Online Dictionary defines hyphenated ‘nickel-and-dime’ as an adjective meaning ‘of little importance,’ and as a verb meaning ‘harass someone by charging for many trivial items or services.’
Cambridge Online Dictionary defines ‘nickel and dime’ as an adjective meaning ‘something that is not important, usually because it does not involve much money.”
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines hyphenated ‘nickel-and-dime’ as an adjective meaning ‘involving or offering only a small amount of money.’
Though it seems the usage is more often associated with money, can ‘nickel-and-dime’ be used as a verb for the object that has nothing to do with money, in such a way as ‘Indulgence in alcohol nickel-and-dimed his health’ or ‘Rapidly ageing population with declining birth rate nickel and dimes the strength of the country’?
Which is more common to use the word, with hyphen, or without hyphen?
The Oxford English Dictionary has an entry for nickel-and-dime (with hyphens) as a verb, with the following three definitions:
transitive. To treat in a penny-pinching or parsimonious manner; to harass or wear down with trivialities, especially by excessive attention to small items of expenditure.
intransitive. To beg. Now rare.
transitive. To work (one's way) by thrift, or by the accumulation of small amounts of money; (also in extended use, especially in Americn Football) to inch (one's way), to gain ground slowly but steadily. Also with it.