Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 4.pdf/121

 1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, xl. 'Blast you every one, from the judge in his wig, to the colonist a stirring up the dust. I'll show you a better gentleman than the whole kit on you put together!'

3. (venery).—The penis and testes.

Kitchen, subs. (venery).—1. The female pudendum. For synonyms see Monosyllable.

2. (common).—The stomach; the victualling office (q.v.).

Kitchener, subs. (thieves').—A thief frequenting a thieves' kitchen (q.v.).

Kitchenite, subs. (printers').—A loafing compositor frequenting the kitchen of the Compositors' Society house: in contempt.

Kitchen-latin, subs. (common).—Barbarous or sham Latin; dog-latin (q.v.).

Kitchen-physic, subs. (old).—1. Pot-herbs; and (2) victuals.

1592. Greene, Quip for Upstart Courtier [Harl. Misc. v. 406]. For my selfe, if I be ill at ease, I take kitchyn physicke; I make my wife my doctor, and my garden my apothecaries shop.

1641. Milton, Def. Humb. Remonst., § 2. Nothing will cure this man's understanding but some familiar and kitchen physick Call hither your cook!

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. A little kitchen-physic will set him up; he has more need of a cook than a doctor.

1811. Lex. Bal., s.v.

Kitchen-stuff, subs. (old).—A female servant.

1658. Brome, New Academy, p. 44. What a bold piece of kitchen-stuff is this that you have married!

Kite, subs. (popular).—1. A fool; a sharper; a cruel and rapacious wretch. Fr. un buse. For synonyms see Buffle and Cabbage-*head.

1534. Udall, Roister Doister, v. 5. Roister Doister, that doughtie kite.

1605. Shakspeare, King Lear, i. 4. Detested kite! thou liest.

1639. Fletcher, Wit without Money, i. 1. Cramming of serving-men, mustering of beggars, Maintaining hospitals for kites and Curs.

1812. From an old Dublin Jester. [The story, however, with slight variations is told of other judges. See N. and Q., 6 S., ix. 326, 394]. In a case before the Lord Chancellor of Ireland Mr. Curran, on behalf of the suitor, prayed to be relieved from the payment of some bills for which he had not received consideration, but only lent his name as an accommodation. Mr. Curran, in the course of his pleadings, mentioned the terms kite and raising the wind several times, when his lordship requested to know the meaning of the words. 'My lord', Mr. Curran replied, 'in your country (meaning England) the wind generally raises the kite, but with us,' significantly looking at the gentlemen of the bar, 'the kite raises the wind.'

2. (commercial).—An accommodation bill; fictitious commercial paper; (in Scotland) a wind-*mill-bill (q.v.) See Kite-flying. To fly a kite = to raise money or keep up credit by the aforesaid means.

1817. Edgeworth, Love and Law, i. 2. Here's bills plenty—long bills and short bills—but even the kites, which I can fly as well as any man, won't raise the money for me now.

1823. Bee, Dict. of the Turf, s.v. Kite-flying. In Ireland flying the kite is employed to describe raising the wind.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (M. of Venice). In English Exchequer-bills full half a million, Not kites, manufactured to cheat and inveigle, But the right sort of 'flimsy.'

1848. Punch, xiv. 226. He never does a little discounting, nor lends his hand to flying a kite.