kite

Meanings

Noun

• A bird of prey of the family Accipitridae.
• A rapacious person.
• 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.
• A tethered object which deflects its position in a medium by obtaining lift and drag in reaction with its relative motion in the medium.
• A planetary configuration wherein one planet of a grand trine is in opposition to an additional fourth planet.
• A blank cheque; a fraudulent cheque, such as one issued even though there are insufficient funds to honour it, or one that has been altered without authorization.
• An accommodation bill.
• A rider who is good at climbs but less good at descents.
• A polygon resembling the shape of a traditional toy kite (sense 3): a quadrilateral having two pairs of edges of equal length, the edges of each pair touching each other at one end.
• An aeroplane or aircraft.
• In a square-rigged ship: originally a sail positioned above a topsail; later a lightweight sail set above the topgallants, such as a studding sail or a jib topsail.
• A spinnaker.
• The brill (Scophthalmus rhombus (species)), a type of flatfish.
• A (usually concealed) letter or oral message, especially one passed illegally into, within, or out of a prison.
• The stomach; the belly.
• A measure of weight equivalent to deben (about 0.32 ounces or 9.1 grams).

Verb

• To cause (something) to move upwards rapidly like a toy kite; also to cause (something, such as costs) to increase rapidly.
• 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.
• To keep ahead of (an enemy) in order to attack repeatedly from a distance, without exposing oneself to danger.
• To (cause to) glide in the manner of a kite.
• To manipulate like a toy kite; also, usually preceded by an inflection of go: to fly a toy kite.
• 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.
• To steal.
• To travel by kite, as when kitesurfing.
• To move rapidly; to rush.
• To deflect sideways in the water.
• To pass a (usually concealed) letter or oral message, especially illegally into, within, or out of a prison.

Origin

• The noun is from Middle English kyte, kite, kete, from Old English cȳta ("kite; bittern"), from Proto-Germanic *kūtijô, diminutive of *kūts, from Proto-Indo-European *gū- ("to cry, screech"). The English word is cognate with Scots kyt, kyte, Middle High German kiuzelīn, kützlīn (modern German Kauz ("barn owl; screech owl")).
• Sense 3 (“lightweight toy”) is from the fact that it hovers in the air like the bird.
• The verb is derived from the noun.
• Unknown; possibly:
• from Middle English kit, kitte, possibly from Middle Dutch kitte ("wooden vessel of hooped staves") (modern Dutch kit ("metal can used mainly for coal")), further etymology unknown; or
• from Middle English *kid (attested only in compounds such as kide-nẹ̄re), possibly from Old English *cyde, *cydde, cwiþ, from Proto-Germanic *kweþuz ("belly, stomach"), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷet-, *gut-, from *gʷu-, *gū-. The English word is cognate with Icelandic kviði ("womb"), kviður, kýta, Middle Low German kūt ("entrails"), West Flemish kijte, kiete.
• Borrowed from Coptic ⲕⲓⲧⲉ, from Demotic qt, from Egyptian qdt.