kite
/kaɪt/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms kites kiting kited kight kyte qite
- noun A bird of prey of the family Accipitridae. “A pair of kites built a nest on the cliff.”
- noun Any bird of the subfamily Milvinae, with long wings and weak legs, feeding mostly on carrion and spending long periods soaring; specifically, the red kite (Milvus milvus) and the black kite (Milvus migrans).
- noun A bird of the genus Elanus, having thin pointed wings, that preys on rodents and hunts by hovering; also, any bird of related genera in the subfamily Elaninae.
- noun Some species in the subfamily Perninae.
- noun (figuratively) A rapacious person.
- noun A lightweight toy or other device, traditionally flat and shaped like a triangle with a segment of a circle attached to its base or like a quadrilateral (see sense 9), carried on the wind and tethered and controlled from the ground by one or more lines. “On windy spring days, we would fly kites.”
- noun A tethered object which deflects its position in a medium by obtaining lift and drag in reaction with its relative motion in the medium.
- noun (astrology) A planetary configuration wherein one planet of a grand trine is in opposition to an additional fourth planet.
- verb (transitive) To cause (something) to move upwards rapidly like a toy kite; also (chiefly US, figuratively) to cause (something, such as costs) to increase rapidly. “Rising interest rates have kited the cost of housing.”
- verb (transitive, slang) To tamper with a document or record by increasing the quantity of something beyond its proper amount so that the difference may be unlawfully retained; in particular, to alter a medical prescription for this purpose by increasing the number of pills or other items.
- verb To keep ahead of (an enemy) and repeatedly attack it from a distance, without exposing oneself to danger.
- verb To attack (an enemy) or otherwise cause it to give chase, so as to lead it somewhere (like a kite is led on a string), for example into a trap or ambush or away from its comrades or something it was protecting. “I hate it when my knight is kited away from the castle that I'm attacking!”
- verb (ambitransitive) To (cause to) glide in the manner of a kite (“bird”). “The wind kited us toward shore.”
- verb (ambitransitive, rare) To manipulate like a toy kite; also, usually preceded by an inflection of go: to fly a toy kite. “Want to go kite with me this weekend?”
- verb (ambitransitive, banking, slang) To write or present (a cheque) on an account with insufficient funds, either to defraud or expecting that funds will become available by the time the cheque clears. “He was convicted of kiting checks and sentenced to two years in prison.”
- verb (ambitransitive, US, slang, by extension) To steal.
- noun (Northern England, Scotland, dialectal) The stomach; the belly.
- noun (Egyptology) A measure of weight equivalent to ¹⁄₁₀ deben (about 0.32 ounces or 9.1 grams).
- proper noun A surname.
- proper noun A minor city in Johnson County, Georgia, United States, named after Shaderick Kight, who chose the spelling.
Synonyms
Etymology
The noun is from Middle English kyte, kīte, kete (“a kite endemic to Europe, especially the red kite (Milvus milvus)”), from Old English cȳta (“kite; bittern”), from Proto-West Germanic *kūtijō, diminutive of Proto-West Germanic *kūt (“bird of prey”), from Proto-Indo-European *gewH-d- (“to cry, screech”). The English word is cognate with Scots kyt, kyte (“kite; bird of prey”), Middle High German kiuzelīn, kützlīn (“owling”) (modern German Kauz (“owl”)). Possibly a doublet of coot.
Sense 3 (“lightweight toy”) is from the fact that it hovers in the air like the bird.
The verb is derived from the noun.
* from Middle English kit, kitte (“wooden bucket or tub; (figuratively) belly”), possibly from Middle Dutch kitte (“wooden vessel of hooped staves”) (modern Dutch kit (“metal can used mainly for coal”)), further etymology unknown; or
* from Old Norse kýta (“bag, stomach (of a fish)”), from Proto-Germanic *kūtiz.
* from Middle English *kid (attested only in compounds such as kide-nẹ̄re (“kidney; region of the kidneys, loins”)), possibly from Old English *cyde, *cydde (“belly”), cwiþ (“belly; womb”), from Proto-Germanic *kweþuz (“belly, stomach”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷet- or *gwet- (“rounding, swelling; entrails, stomach”), doubtfully from *gʷu-, *gū- (“to bend, bow, curve, distend, vault”). The English word is cognate with Icelandic kviði (“womb”), kviður (“stomach”), kýta (“stomach of a fish; roe”), Middle Low German kūt (“entrails”), West Flemish kijte, kiete (“fleshy part of the body”).
Borrowed from Coptic ⲕⲓⲧⲉ (kite), from Demotic Egyptian qt, from Egyptian qdt.
* As an English surname, from the noun kite (“bird of prey”).
* As a German surname, Americanized from Keith.
* Also as an English surname, from placenames derived from Old English cȳte (“hut, cottage”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun Any raptorial bird of the subfamily Milvinæ, of which many species are known. They have long wings, adapted for soaring, and usually a forked tail.
- noun Fig. : One who is rapacious.
- verb To raise money by "kites;" as, kiting transactions. See Kite, 6. [Cant]
- noun The belly. [Prov. Eng. & Scot.]
Etymology [OE. kyte, AS.c; cf. W. cud, cut.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “kite”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details