1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Kick, a High kick, the top of the Fashion; also singularity therein.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Kick. It is all the kick, it is the present mode.
d.1814. Dibdin [quoted in Century]. 'Tis the kick, I say, old 'un, so I brought it down.
1833. Neal, Down Easters, v. p. 64. What do ye pay for sech a pair o' boots as them in Eurup? Newest fashion out here—all the kick, I spose, hey?
d.1836. Geo. Colman the Younger [quoted by Brewer]. I cocked my hat, and twirled my stick, And the girls they called me quite the kick.
2. (old).—A sixpence: of compound sums only, e.g. 'three and a kick' = 3s. 6d. For synonyms see Bender.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1823. Moncrieff, Tom & Jerry, iii, 3. 'What's to pay landlord?'. . . 'Fourteen bob and a kick your honor.'
1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, iii. xiii. 'Two coach-wheels [crowns], half a bull [half a crown], three hogs [shillings], and a kick.'
1860. Punch, xxxix, p. 97. Moshesh is a brick; This cost but ten and a kick.
1864. Soiled Dove, p. 263. 'Six bob and a kick, if so be as the holes are mended.'
1871. Echo, 15 May. 'What do you mean by telling me that you will take it away for a kick?' 'Wot do I mean? why wot I say; I'll do the job for sixpence, and me and my mate 'ull sweep up any mess we makes as well.'
1871. Figaro, March. Let persons addicted to the use of slang, in whose dialect two-and-a-kick means half-a-crown, remark, if they please, that they would twelve times rather have a kick than a half-penny.
3. (common).—A moment; a jiffy (q.v.)
4. (thieves').—See quot. 1859. For synonyms see Poge.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v. Kick. The Moll stubbled her skin in her kick, the woman held her purse in her pocket.
1869. Greenwood, Night in a Workhouse. I rifled his kick of his shiners so fine.
5. (American).—A grudge.
1887. Francis, Saddle and Mocassin, p. 308. I haven't got any kick against Don Juan.
6. (trade).—The hollow in the butt of a bottle.
1851-61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. etc., ii. 511. Some bottles has great kicks at their bottoms.
1864. Scotsman, 29 June, . . . fraudulently manufactured bottles, which by reason of an oblong cavity in the bottom (called in London a kick) contain from 10 to 20 per cent less than the due quantity.
1864. Left Her Home, p. 65. The bottle fell on the kick, and being made of strong glass . . . did not break.
7. in pl. (old).—Breeches; trousers. Also kicksters and kicksies: cf. Hams.
English synonyms. Arse-rug; bum-bags; bell-bottoms; bum-curtain; bags; calf-clingers; canvas-seens, (q.v.); continuations; don't-name-'ems; ducks; gam-cases; hams; inexpressibles; ineffables; inimitables; kicks; kickseys; moles; mustn't-mention-'ems; peg-tops (q.v.); pants; rice-bags; sit-upons; skilts (q.v.); slacks (q.v.); strides; trolly-wags; trucks; trunks (q.v.); unhintables; unmentionables; unutterables; unwhisperables; whistling breeches (q.v.).
French synonyms. Un benard (popular); la braillande or braillarde (thieves'); les calinettes (common); la cotte (= blue canvass working trousers); la culbute or le culbutant (thieves'); un four-
