Ken-cracker (or Miller), subs. (old).—A housebreaker. B. E. (1690); New Cant. Dict. (1725); Grose (1785); Matsell (1859).
Ken-crack-lay, subs. (thieves').—Housebreaking.
See Ken, Crack,
and Lay.
Kennedy, subs. (common). See quot.
To give kennedy = to lay in
with a poker.
1864. Athenæum, 29 Oct., p. 559. St. Giles's perpetuates the memory of a . . . man . . . who was killed by a poker by calling that instrument a Kennedy.
1887. Henley, Villon's Good Night. Paste 'em, and larrup 'em, and lam; Give kennedy and make 'em crawl.
Kennel, subs. (old).—The female
pudendum. For synonyms see
Monosyllable. [Cf. Kennel, O.
F. canal = a gutter or watercourse].
1647-80. Rochester, Bath Intrigues. Twelve times I scoured the kennel 'twixt her thighs.
Kennel-raker, subs. (old).—A scavenger;
one fit only for low, dirty
jobs.
1647. Fletcher, Prophetess, iii. 1. Give your petitions in seemly sort, and keep your hat off decently, a fine periphrasis of a kennel-raker.
1655. Comicall History of Francion [quoted by Nares]. They heard behind them so great a hooping and hallowing of men and boys, and an outcry of women, that they were inforced to look back, and presently they discovered a young man, who had nothing but his shirt on his back, and not so much as shoes on his feet, who was followed by a number of the kennelrakers, who made a perpetual shout.
d.1735. Arbuthnot, Wks. (1751). I. 49. You did not love cruelty, you kennel-raker, you gibbet-carrier.
Kennurd, adj. (back slang).—Drunk.
For synonyms see Drinks and
Screwed.
Kent (or Kent-rag,Kent-clout etc.)
subs. (common).—A colored
cotton handkerchief.
Kentish-fire, subs. (colloquial).—A
prolonged and ordered salvo of
applause. [From the cheers bestowed
in Kent upon the No-Popery
orators in 1828-9].
1865. J. H. Buckstone in letter to Morning Post, 22 March. During the overture that peculiar beating of the feet known to a Dublin audience as the Kentish fire was heard.
Kent-street Ejectment, subs. phr.
(old).—See quot.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. To take away the street door, a method practised by the landlords in Kent-st., Southwark, when their tenants are above a fortnight's rent in arrear.
Kerbstone-broker, subs. (common).—A
stock-broker doing
business outside the Stock-Exchange;
a guttersnipe (q.v.). Fr.
un courtier marron, and (collectively)
les coulissiers.
Kerflop, intj. (American).—Onomatopœic:
in imitation of the sound
of a body falling flat or into water.
Variants: Cachunk (q.v.); Kerslap; Kesouse; Keslosh; Keswosh; Kewosh; Keswollop; Kerchunk; Kerplunk; Kerthump; Kershaw; Kerslash; Kerslosh; Kerswosh, etc.
1843. Major Jones's Courtship, i. Kerslash! I went rite over Miss Stallinses spinnin' wheel onto the floor.
1848. Jones, Sketches of Travel, p. 64. Kerslosh went the water all over my feet.
b.1852. Traits of American Hamour, p. 59. The first thing I knowed, I went kerswash into the drink.
d.1867. Brown ('Artemus Ward'). The Shakers. Shakers were all goin' kerslap to the Promist Land.
