<B>kickshaw, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a fancy article of food; delicacy. <BR> <I>Ex. His mouth was that of an epicure, one who had sampled every vintage and kickshaw of the gourmet's art (New Yorker).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a trifle; trinket. </DL>
<A NAME="kickshaws">
<B>kickshaws, </B>noun. <B>=kickshaw.</B></DL>
<A NAME="kickstand">
<B>kickstand, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a metal rod attached to the frame of a bicycle or motorcycle to support the vehicle when not in use. </DL>
<A NAME="kickstart">
<B>kick-start, </B>transitive verb.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>to start an engine or machine by a downward kick or pressure on a pedal. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) to start an enterprise or process by additional effort or action. <BR> <I>Ex. Tories called for a realignment of currencies ... to provide scope for cuts in interest rates to kick-start the economy (Manchester Guardian Weekly).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="kickstarter">
<B>kick starter</B> or <B>start,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a self-starter actuated by a downward kick or pressure on a pedal. <BR> <I>Ex. a motorcycle kick starter.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="kickturn">
<B>kick turn,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a skiing turn made while stationary, by lifting one ski to a vertical position, then placing it on the ground in nearly the opposite direction before raising and turning the other ski. </DL>
<A NAME="kickup">
<B>kickup, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Slang.) a disturbance; fuss. <BR> <I>Ex. In recent years there have been kickups over many rules, notably those which control publications and societies (Punch).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="kicky">
<B>kicky, </B>adjective, <B>kickier,</B> <B>kickiest.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>apt to kick. <BR> <I>Ex. a kicky mule.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Slang.) exciting. <BR> <I>Ex. The rock'n'roll fashion show is the kickiest thing to come along since the trampoline lost its bounce (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="kid">
<B>kid</B> (1), noun, adjective, verb, <B>kidded,</B> <B>kidding.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a young goat. <DD><B> 2. </B>its flesh, used as food. <DD><B> 3. </B>its skin, used as fur. <DD><B> 4. </B>leather made from the skin of a young goat, used for gloves and shoes; kidskin. <BR> <I>Ex. These gloves are of kid.</I> <DD><B> 5. </B>(Informal.) a child. <BR> <I>Ex. I started as an average kid, I finished as a thinkin' man (Rudyard Kipling).</I> <DD><B> 6. </B>(U.S. Informal.) a person of any age (used especially as a familiar form of address). <BR> <I>Ex. Say, kid, I hear you got engaged.</I> <DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1. </B>made of kid leather or other soft leather resembling kid. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Informal.) younger. <BR> <I>Ex. She teased her kid brother.</I> <DD><I>v.i., v.t. </I> to give birth to (a young goat). <BR><I>expr. <B>kids,</B> </I>gloves or shoes made of kid. <BR> <I>Ex. His great hands ... are encased in lemon-coloured kids (Thackeray).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="kid">
<B>kid</B> (2), verb, <B>kidded,</B> <B>kidding,</B> noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Slang.) <DD><I>v.t., v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>to tease playfully; talk in a joking way; banter. <BR> <I>Ex. He's always kidding. He had kidded him affectionately ... for giving somebody a promissory note without noticing how much it was for (Edmund Wilson).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to humbug; fool. <DD><I>noun </I> humbug; fooling. <BR><I>expr. <B>kid oneself,</B> </I>(Informal.) to deceive oneself; rationalize. <BR> <I>Ex. In spite of her acute sense of the ways in which people tell lies, one feels she is kidding herself (New York Review of Books).</I> adv. <B>kiddingly.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="kid">
<B>kid</B> (3), noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a small tub. <DD><B> 2. </B>a wooden dish in which food was formerly served to sailors. </DL>
<A NAME="kidder">
<B>kidder, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Slang.) a person who kids. </DL>
<A NAME="kidderminster">
<B>Kidderminster, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a type of carpet made of yarn dyed before weaving. </DL>
<A NAME="kiddie">
<B>kiddie, </B>noun. <B>=kiddy.</B></DL>
<A NAME="kiddiecar">
<B>kiddie car,</B> <B>=kiddy car.</B></DL>
<A NAME="kiddle">
<B>kiddle, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a weir or barrier in a stream, fitted with nets or other devices for catching fish. <DD><B> 2. </B>a similar arrangement of stakes and network on a beach. </DL>
<A NAME="kiddo">
<B>kiddo, </B>noun, pl. <B>-dos</B> or <B>-does.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S. Slang.) kid (1) (def. 6). <BR> <I>Ex. "Call him yourself, kiddo," said Mr. Hubble (Harper's).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="kiddush">
<B>kiddush, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a Hebrew prayer said over a cup of wine or over bread in consecration of the Sabbath or a holiday. </DL>
<A NAME="kiddy">
<B>kiddy, </B>noun, pl. <B>-dies.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>(Informal.) a little child. <DD><B> 2. </B>a little kid (young goat). </DL>
<A NAME="kiddycar">
<B>kiddy car,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a small, three-wheeled vehicle that a child can ride while pushing it by his feet on both sides. </DL>
<A NAME="kidglove">
<B>kid-glove, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>wearing kid gloves. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Informal.) delicate; gentle; careful. <BR> <I>Ex. The Communists have given him kid-glove VIP treatment (Newsweek).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="kidgloveorange">
<B>kid-glove orange,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a mandarin or a tangerine orange. </DL>
<A NAME="kidgloves">
<B>kid gloves,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> gloves made of soft kidskin. <BR><I>expr. <B>handle with kid gloves,</B> </I>to treat with great care; treat with consideration and delicacy. <BR> <I>Ex. The artist was very temperamental, and had to be handled with kid gloves.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="kidlet">
<B>kidlet, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a little kid (young goat). </DL>
<A NAME="kidling">
<B>kidling, </B>noun. <B>=kidlet.</B></DL>
<A NAME="kidnap">
<B>kidnap, </B>transitive verb, <B>-napped,</B> <B>-napping</B> or <B>-naped,</B> <B>-naping.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to steal or carry off (anyone, especially a child) by force; seize and hold (a person) against his will by force or by fraud. <BR> <I>Ex. Four men kidnapped the boy, but the police soon caught them and rescued the boy.</I> (SYN) abduct. noun <B>kidnapper,</B> <B>kidnaper.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="kidney">
<B>kidney, </B>noun, pl. <B>-neys.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>one of the pair of organs in the body of mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles that separate waste matter and water from the blood. The kidneys pass waste matter off through the bladder as urine. <DD><B> 2. </B>the kidney or kidneys of an animal, cooked for food. <BR> <I>Ex. beefsteak and kidney pie.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>(Figurative.) <DD><B> a. </B>nature; disposition; temperament. <BR> <I>Ex. a man of my kidney ... that am as subject to heat as butter (Shakespeare).</I> (SYN) constitution. <DD><B> b. </B>kind; sort; class. <BR> <I>Ex. We don't like cowards, sneaks, tattletales, or any person of that kidney. He paraded up and down the streets with a crew of hard swearers at his heels ... heroes of his own kidney (Washington Irving).</I> (SYN) stamp. adj. <B>kidneylike.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="kidneybean">
<B>kidney bean,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a large, red bean, shaped like a kidney and used as a vegetable. <DD><B> 2. </B>the plant that it grows on. <DD><B> 3. </B>seed of the scarlet runner. </DL>
<B>kidney machine,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a machine used in place of the kidney; hemodialyzer. </DL>
<A NAME="kidneyshaped">
<B>kidney-shaped, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> having the general shape of a long oval indented at one side. </DL>
<A NAME="kidneystone">
<B>kidney stone,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a calculus or concretion that sometimes forms in the kidney. </DL>
<A NAME="kidneyvetch">
<B>kidney vetch,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a European perennial plant of the pea family, once used for healing wounds. </DL>
<A NAME="kidneyworm">
<B>kidney worm,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a nematode worm often entering pigs' livers, moving to other organs, and finally reaching maturity in the kidneys. </DL>
<A NAME="kids">
<B>kids, </B>noun pl.<DL COMPACT><DD> See under <B>kid</B> (1). </DL>
<A NAME="kidskin">
<B>kidskin, </B>noun, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> leather made from the skin of young goats, used for gloves and shoes; kid. <DD><I>adj. </I> made of this leather. </DL>
<A NAME="kidstuff">
<B>kid stuff,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Informal.) <DD><B> 1. </B>something childish or immature; puerility. <BR> <I>Ex. The rumors [were] going around that the Lassie program was going to dump the kid stuff and go adult (New Yorker).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>something easy or simple; child's play. <BR> <I>Ex. Brahms' Paganini Variations are not kid stuff, either. They are recognized as one of the supreme tests of a pianist (Harper's).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="kidvid">
<B>kidvid, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S.) children's television programs as an industry. </DL>
<A NAME="kief">
<B>kief, </B>noun. <B>=kef.</B></DL>
<A NAME="kieffer">
<B>Kieffer, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a hybrid variety of pear, grown especially in the southern United States. </DL>
<A NAME="kielbasa">
<B>kielbasa, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Polish.) a sausage. </DL>
<A NAME="kier">
<B>kier, </B>noun, verb.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> a large vat in which yarn or cloth is boiled before bleaching or dyeing in order to remove wax, grease, or dirt. <DD><I>v.t. </I> to boil or treat in a kier. <BR> <I>Ex. to kier yarns.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="kierie">
<B>kierie, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (in South Africa) a knobkerry. </DL>
<A NAME="kierkegaardian">
<B>Kierkegaardian, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> of or having to do with the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) or his philosophy of religious existentialism. <DD><I>noun </I> a student of Kierkegaard or his philosophy. </DL>
<A NAME="kieselguhr">
<B>kieselguhr</B> or <B>kieselgur, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a fine siliceous earth consisting of the fossil remains of diatoms, used as an abrasive, insulator, and filter, and in the manufacture of dynamite as an absorbent for nitroglycerin; diatomaceous earth; diatomite. </DL>
<A NAME="kieserite">
<B>kieserite, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> hydrous magnesium sulfate, usually occurring in fine, granular, white masses, used in making Epsom salts and in the manufacture of potash salts. </DL>
<A NAME="kif">
<B>kif, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> hemp, as the source of the narcotic hashish. </DL>
