1849. Perils of Pearl Street, 82. Flying the kite is rather a perilous adventure.
1880. Sims, Ballads of Babylon, 'Little Worries.' You have a kite you cannot fly, and creditors are pressing.
1883. Grenville-Murray, People I Have Met, p. 158. His wife, one of the better of the best society, had flown kites to the height of twenty-five thousand pounds.
1891. Licensed Victuallers' Gazette, 23 Jan. . . . has been, flying kites and getting into trouble thereby.
3. (American).—Fancy stocks. Matsell (1859).
4. (American thieves').—A letter.—Matsell (1859).
5. (American thieves').—The chief of a gang of thieves.
6. (old).—A recruiting sergeant. [From Farquhar's Sergeant Kite in The Recruiting Officer].
1827. Reynolds, The Fancy, 'The Field of Tothill.' She was ador'd by . . . sober sergeants; privates too in drink, While pampered by those red kites their recruiters.
7. (Old Scots').—The belly.
d.1554. Lindsay, Kitteis Confessioun, Wks. (1879), i. 138, line 140. Thocht Codrus kyte suld cleve and birst.
d.1607. Montgomerie, Flyting, Wks. (1886-7), 85, line 754. Misly kyt! And thou flyt, I'll dryt in thy gob.
1722-30. Ramsay, Fables & Tales, in Wks. (1851), iii. 165. Whose kytes can streek out like raw plaider.
Verb, (commercial).—1. To keep up one's credit by means of accommodation bills; to obtain money by bills. See subs. sense 2.
2. (American).—To speculate wildly.
3. (American).—To be restless, going from place to place; to skite (q.v.).—Matsell (1859).
TO FLY A KITE.—1. See kite, subs. sense 2.
2. (general).—To put out a feeler before a definite announcement.
Kite-flyer, subs. (commercial).—One
who raises money or sustains
his credit by the use of accommodation
bills.
Kite-flying, subs. (commercial).—1.
The fabrication or negotiation of
bills of accommodation, or bills for
which no value has been received,
in order to raise money.
2. (old).—Whoremongering.
1823. Bee, Dict. of the Turf, s.v. Kite-flying—said of a truant husband.
Kitten, subs. (thieves').—A pint or
half-pint pewter pot. See Cat
subs. sense 5.
Verb. (colloquial).—To be brought to bed; TO BUST UP; TO EXPLODE.
Kittie (also Kittock), subs. (Old
Scots'). 1. Generic for a girl; (2)
a romping wench; (3) a harlot.
d.1513. Dunbar, Devorit with Dreme, in Poems (ut supra), I, 83. So many ane kitty dressed up with golden chenye.
c.1538. Lyndsay, Against Syde Taillis, Wks. (1879), i. 131. I ken ane man, quchilk sevoir greit aithir. How he did lift ane kittokis claithis. Idem, i. 135. Kittei's Confessioun. The Curate kittie wold have kissed.
d.1542. James V, Christ's Kirk on the Green. There cam our kiteies weschin clene In thair now kirtillis of gray.
KITTLE-BREEKS, subs. (Scots').—An
irritable person.
Kittle-pitchering, subs. (old).—See
quot.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. A jocular method of hobbling or bothering a troublesome teller of long stories; this is done by contradicting some very immaterial circumstance at the beginning of the narration, the objections to which
