kite

A red kite (Milvus milvus; sense 1.1) in flight

The black-winged kite (Elanus caeruleus; sense 1.2)

The swallow-tailed kite (Elanoides forficatus; sense 1.3)

Toy kites (sense 3) in a variety of designs and shapes

Children in Afghanistan playing with toy kites (sense 3). The boy on the right is holding a traditional four-sided kite.

A kite shape (sense 9). There are two pairs of edges of equal length, AB and AD (which join at point A), and CB and CD (which join at point C).

H.M.S. Calypso under full sail. Studding sails above the topgallants (the topgallant is the third sail from the bottom of the mast, and the studding sail is one of the smaller sails attached to the sides of the larger sails), and jib topsails (the triangular sail at the front between the topmast and the bowsprit) were sometimes termed kites (sense 11).

The colourful kite (sense 11), or spinnaker, of a trimaran sailboat

A drawing of a brill (Scophthalmus rhombus; sense 12), which is known dialectally in Britain as a kite

The noun is from Middle English kyte, kīte, kete (“a kite endemic to Europe, especially the red kite (Milvus milvus)”), from Old English cȳta (“kite; bittern”),^[1][2] from Proto-West Germanic *kūtijō, diminutive of Proto-Germanic *kūts (“bird of prey”), from Proto-Indo-European *gewH-d- (“to cry, screech”). The English word is cognate with Scots kyt, kyte (“kite; bird of prey”), Middle High German kiuzelīn, kützlīn (“owling”) (modern German Kauz (“owl”)). Possibly a doublet of coot.

Sense 3 (“lightweight toy”) is from the fact that it hovers in the air like the bird.^[2]

The verb is derived from the noun.^[3]

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: kīt, IPA^(key): /kaɪt/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪt

kite (plural kites)

2. A bird of prey of the family Accipitridae.

   A pair of kites built a nest on the cliff.

   • 1575, George Gascoigne, “Councell to Duglasse Diue Written vpon This Occasion. ”, in The Posies of George Gascoigne Esquire. , printed at London: For Richard Smith, , →OCLC; republished in William Carew Hazlitt, compiler, The Complete Poems of George Gascoigne In Two Volumes, volume I, : Printed for the Roxburghe Library, 1869, →OCLC, page 370:

     And yet the ſillie kight, well weyde in each degree,
     May ſerue ſometimes (as in his kinde) for mans commoditie.
     The kight can weede the worme from corne and coſtly ſeedes,
     The kight cã kill the mowldiwarpe, in pleaſant meads yͭ breeds:
     Out of the ſtately ſtreetes the kight can clenſe the filth,
     As mẽ can clẽſe the worthleſſe weedes frõ fruteful fallow tilth; […]

   • 1600, Thomas Danett, chapter 13, in A Continuation of the Historie of France, from the Death of Charles the Eight where Comines [i.e., Philippe de Commines] Endeth, till the Death of Henry the Second, London: Printed by Thomas East for Thomas Charde, →OCLC, page 91:

     Monſieur de Sanſſac was appointed to attend vpon him with all ſorts of Haukes, wherein the ſaide Emperour ſemed to take great delight, eſpecially with flying at the Kight, which the French call Voler le Milan, […]

   • 1631, Francis , “IX. Century. [Experiments in Consort, Touching Perception in Bodies Insensible, Tending to Natural Diuination, or Subtill Trialls.]”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. , 3rd edition, London: William Rawley ; rinted by J H for William Lee , →OCLC, paragraph 824, page 208:

     Kites flying aloft, ſhew Faire and Drie Weather. […] the Kite affecteth not ſo much the Groſſneſſe of the Aire, as the Cold and Freſhneſſe thereof; For being a Bird of Prey, and therefore Hot, ſhee delighteth in the Fresh Aire; And (many times) flyeth againſt the Wind, […]

   • 1704, [Jonathan Swift], “A Full and True Account of the Battel Fought Last Friday, between the Antient and the Modern Books in St. James’s Library”, in A Tale of a Tub. , London: John Nutt, , published 1705, →OCLC, page 270:

     I hope, that vile Carcaſs will firſt become a Prey to Kites and Worms.

   1. Any bird of the subfamily Milvinae, with long wings and weak legs, feeding mostly on carrion and spending long periods soaring; specifically, the red kite (Milvus milvus) and the black kite (Milvus migrans).

      Synonym: glede

      • 1816, G Gregory, [Jeremiah Joyce], “FALCO”, in A Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. In Three Volumes. , 1st American edition, volume II, Philadelphia, Pa.: Published by Isaac Peirce, , sold also by Coale and Maxwell, , and James F. Shores, ; Dennis Heartt, printer, →OCLC:

        The milvus, or kite, is a native of Europe, Asia, and Africa. […] Its motion in the air distinguishes it from all other birds, being so smooth and even that it is scarcely perceptible.

   2. A bird of the genus Elanus, having thin pointed wings, that preys on rodents and hunts by hovering; also, any bird of related genera in the subfamily Elaninae.
      • 2019, Stephen Debus, “Small Kites, Genus Elanus”, in Birds of Prey of Australia: A Field Guide, 3rd edition, Clayton South, Vic.: CSIRO Publishing, →ISBN, part II (Handbook), page 113:

        The ‘white-tailed’ kites in the genus Elanus (‘kite’) are small, gull-like, grey-and-white hawks with black forewing patches and varying amounts of black on the underwings.

   3. Some species in the subfamily Perninae.
      • 2011, “Selected Falconiforms”, in John P. Rafferty, editor, Meat Eaters: Raptors, Sharks, and Crocodiles (Britannica Guide to Predators and Prey), New York, N.Y.: Britannica Educational Publishing in association with Rosen Educational Services, →ISBN, page 57:

        The swallow-tailed kite of the New World (Elanoides forficatus) is a striking black and white bird of the subfamily Perninae. It is about 60 cm (24 inches) long, including its long forked tail. It is most common in tropical eastern South America but also occurs from Central America to the United States.

3. (figuratively) A rapacious person.
   • c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters.  (First Quarto), London: Nathaniel Butter, , published 1608, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:

     deteſted kite, thou liſt[.] y traine, and men of choiſe and rareſt parts, that all particulars of dutie knowe, and in the moſt exact regard, ſupport the worſhip of their name, [...]

     Detested kite, you lie! My train are men specially chosen for their rare qualities, know all the particulars of their duty, and most conscientiously uphold their reputation,

4. 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.

   On windy spring days, we would fly kites.

   • 1859 December 13, Elizabeth Gaskell, “The Ghost in the Garden Room”, in Charles Dickens, editor, The Haunted House. The Extra Christmas Number of All the Year Round , volume II, London: C Whiting, , →OCLC, page 38, column 1:

     What for do ye want to get baker's bread, aunt? This dough will rise as high as a kite in the south wind.

   • 1921 March, “Keeping Up with the March of Science: Facts for the Man who Wants to Know”, in Waldemar Kaempffert, editor, The Popular Science Monthly, volume 98, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Modern Publishing Company, , →OCLC, page 71, column 1:

     Housing a Dirigible […] When the ship is kept head on to the wind, it is easy enough to guide her, but when a wind blows across the mouth of the shed, every man's heart is in its throat. The ship offers so much more surface sidewise than endwise that she becomes an enormous kite.

5. A tethered object which deflects its position in a medium by obtaining lift and drag in reaction with its relative motion in the medium.
   • 1906 September 12, “Water Kites”, in Fairbanks Evening News‎, Fairbanks, Ak.: Tanana Pub. Co., →OCLC, page 2:

     The purpose of the water kite is to float beneath or beside the ship at a depth sufficient to insure safety.

6. (astrology) A planetary configuration wherein one planet of a grand trine is in opposition to an additional fourth planet.
   • 1992, Erin Sullivan, Retrograde Planets: Traversing the Inner Landscape (Contemporary Astrology), London: Arkana Publishing, →ISBN, pages 144–145:

     Frequently a kite formation is created by one of the planets in the trine by its opposition to another planet, which allows expulsion and redirection of the pent-up energy associated with a closed circuit.

7. (banking, slang) 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.
   • 1991 May 21, Alex Barnum, “Suspect named in kiting case”, in San Jose Mercury News, San Jose, Calif.: Mercury Herald Co., →OCLC, page 8E:

     But she said, "if this was a kite, he didn't realize that you don't have the float time of the old days," which made check-kiting easier.

8. (finance, slang) An accommodation bill (“a bill of exchange endorsed by a reputable third party acting as a guarantor, as a favour and without compensation”).
   • 1871, James W. Gilbart, “Section XI. The Administration of Joint-stock Banks, with an Inquiry into the Causes of Their Failures.”, in The Principles and Practice of Banking, new edition, London: Bell & Daldy, , →OCLC, part I (Of Practical Banking), pages 324–325:

     The advantages which are alleged to belong to the district system [of banking] are the following:— […] as each bank will have an agent in London, the bills they draw will thus have two parties as securities, and the public will have a pledge that there is no excessive issue in the form of kites or accommodation bills.

9. (cycling, slang) A rider who is good at climbs but less good at descents.
10. (geometry) 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.

    Four-sided figures without parallel sides include trapezoids and kites.

    • 2011, W. Michael Kelley, “Quadrilaterals”, in The Humongous Book of Geometry Problems: Translated for People Who Don’t Speak Math!!, New York, N.Y.: Alpha Books, →ISBN, page 216:

      A kite is a quadrilateral with exactly two pairs of adjacent congruent sides. Note that a parallelogram has opposite congruent sides, whereas the congruent sides of kites are adjacent. Therefore, a kite is also a parallelogram only when both pairs of adjacent congruent sides of the kite are congruent to each other, making the kite a rhombus.

11. (military aviation, slang) An aeroplane or aircraft.
    • 1944, Vocational Trends, volume 7:

      And did you know the Chiefie said that one of our kites went in the drink last night?

    • 2004, Harry Foxley, Marking Time: A Soldier’s Story, Victoria, B.C., Crewe, East Cheshire: Trafford Publishing, →ISBN, page 133:

      This time, the engine roared and the kite rocked against the brakes then sluggishly rolled down the strip.

12. (sailing, dated) 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.
    • 1856, R W Emerson, “Voyage to England”, in English Traits, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, →OCLC, page 33:

      Our good master keeps his kites up to the last moment, studding-sails alow and aloft, and, by incessant straight steering, never loses a rod of way.

      This is the first attested use of the word in this sense.^[4]

13. (sailing, slang) A spinnaker (“supplementary sail to a mainsail”).
    • 2014, Tim Davison, “Symmetric Spinnakers”, in Skipper’s Cockpit Racing Guide: For Dinghies, Keelboats and Yachts, London: Adlard Coles Nautical, →ISBN, page 24:

      The key to a good gybe is to bring the spinnaker round to the old weather side before you begin, and then to steer to keep some wind in the kite.

14. (British, dialectal) The brill (Scophthalmus rhombus), a type of flatfish.
    • 2010, “Fish and Seafood”, in Helena Caldon, Fiona Corbridge, Mary Scott, Belinda Wilkinson, editors, The Cook’s Book of Ingredients, London: Dorling Kindersley, →ISBN, page 69:

      Brill (Scophthalmus rhombus) Also known as kite or pearl. Brill reaches a maximum length of 75cm (29½in). It lives in the Eastern Atlantic, from Iceland to Morocco, throughout the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.

15. (US, prison slang) A (usually concealed) letter or oral message, especially one passed illegally into, within, or out of a prison.
    • 2011, Gary L. Heyward, Corruption Officer: From Jail Guard to Perpetrator inside Rikers Island, New York, N.Y.: Atria Paperback, →ISBN, pages 69–70:

      Officers must maintain control by making sure their inmate count is correct, by checking inmates' passes as they walk the hall […] This helps prevent the occasional juggling of goods, gang communication, such as kites (a written request from one inmate to another), and inmate assaults, such as face cuts or stabbings.

• (bird of prey): kight, kyte (obsolete)

Species of birds

Other terms

kite (third-person singular simple present kites, present participle kiting, simple past and past participle kited)

1. (transitive) To cause (something) to move upwards rapidly like a toy kite; also (chiefly US, figuratively) to cause (something, such as costs) to increase rapidly.

   Rising interest rates have kited the cost of housing.

   • 1907, Geo W Peck, chapter XVII, in Peck’s Bad Boy with the Cowboys, Chicago, Ill.: Stanton and Van Vliet Co., →OCLC, pages 292–293:

     […] when he saw the fuse of the firecracker was lighted, he turned the torch on the powder under the barrel of dried apples, and in a second everything went kiting; the barrel of dried apples with the cat in it went up to the ceiling, the stove was blown over the counter, the cheese box and the old groceryman went with a crash to the back end of the store, the front windows blew out on the sidewalk, the old man rushed out the back door with his whiskers singed and yelled "Fire!"

   • 1942, William Irish [pseudonym; Cornell Woolrich], Phantom Lady (Story Press Book), Philadelphia, Pa., New York, N.Y.: J. B. Lippincott Co., →OCLC, page 189:

     Lombard swung at the sweet pea he had dropped, caught it neatly with the toe of his shoe, and kited it upward with grim zest, as though doing that made him feel a lot better.

   • 2009, Thomas Fleming, “George Washington: The Agonies of Honor”, in The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers, New York, N.Y.: Smithsonian Books, →ISBN; 1st Harper paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper; Smithsonian Books, 2010, →ISBN, page 5:

     Today, the Bangs auction house would have been rubbing its hands with unconcealed glee and kiting the price of the manuscript into the stratosphere. In 1877, no bidding took place. Bangs merely announced that the letter had been sold for $13.

2. (transitive, slang) 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.
   • 1970 June 2, Lowell E. Bellin, “Statement of Dr. Lowell E. Bellin, First Deputy Commissioner, New York City Department of Health”, in Medicare and Medicaid: Hearings before the Subcommittee on Medicare-Medicaid of the Committee on Finance, United States Senate, Ninety-first Congress, Second Session: Part 2 of 2 Parts: , Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 535:

     A pharmacist "kited" and "shorted" a significant percentage of prescriptions. "Kiting" refers to the pharmacist's forging upward the number of pills originally prescribed by the physician, charging Medicaid for the increased amount but providing the patient with the originally prescribed quantity.

   • 1975, Spencer Klaw, The Great American Medicine Show: The Unhealthy State of U.S. Medical Care, and What can be Done about It, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →ISBN, page 191:

     Pharmacists have kited Medicaid prescriptions by raising the number of pills called for on a prescription blank from, say, 100 to 200, and billing Medicaid for the larger amount.

   • 2009 July 9, Martin Sandy Doria, “Gao Shang Air Station”, in The Fungido Journals, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 84:

     Sir, I have a lead that the sergeants in charge at the down town airmen's club have been kiting the winnings on the slot machines. […] Some of them will give the kid his $10.00 winnings, have him sign for it in the ledger. After the kid walks away he/they add a zero to make it look like the kid won a $100 instead of the ten. Then they pocket the $90.00.

3. (transitive, video games)

   Coordinate terms: pull, bait

   • 2001, Juanita Jones, Everquest Player’s Guide: Prima’s Official Strategy Guide, Roseville, Calif.: Prima Games, →ISBN, page 70:

     If you're pulling or kiting a creature and it aggros an innocent passer-by, it's your fault and you should apologize.

   1. To keep ahead of (an enemy) and repeatedly attack it from a distance, without exposing oneself to danger.
   2. To attack (an enemy) or otherwise cause it to give chase, so as to lead it somewhere (like a kite is led on a string), for example into a trap or ambush or away from its comrades or something it was protecting.
4. (transitive, intransitive) To (cause to) glide in the manner of a kite (“bird”).

   Synonym: soar

   The wind kited us toward shore.

   • 2010, Cathryn J. Prince, “The Misquote Heard Round the World”, in A Professor, A President, and A Meteor: The Birth of American Science, Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, →ISBN, page 130:

     It was mere happenstance that the Weston meteor kited across the sky on December 14, 1807, the same day President Jefferson's Non-Importation Act, which restricted trade with Great Britain and France during the Napoleonic Wars, went into effect.

   • 2019, Amy J. Murphy, chapter 13, in Pat Dobie, editor, Allies and Enemies: Legacy (Allies and Enemies; book 4), : Amy J. Murphy:

     In the distance creatures on leathery wings kited across the sky, lofted by thermal winds.

5. (transitive, intransitive, rare) To manipulate like a toy kite; also, usually preceded by an inflection of go: to fly a toy kite.

   Want to go kite with me this weekend?

   • 1981 March, “Fun on a Kite String”, in Austin H. Kiplinger, editor, Changing Times: The Kiplinger Magazine, volume 35, number 3, Editors Park, Md.: The Kiplinger Washington Editors, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 34:

     Finally, if you have no one to fly a kite with, you can kite alone.

   • 1997, Norman Schmidt, “Kites are Universal”, in The Great Kite Book (A Sterling/Tamos Book), Winnipeg, Manitoba: TAMOS Books, →ISBN; republished as Best Ever Paper Kites, New York, N.Y.: Sterling Publishing Company; Winnipeg, Manitoba: TAMOS Books, 2003, →ISBN, page 3:

     Only during the brief time of experimentation with flight that preceded the invention of the airplane, when kites fired the western imagination with visions of human flight, did kiting become significant.

   • 2005, Danielle Burgio, with Jennifer Worick, “Coordination”, in The Stuntwoman’s Workout: Get Your Body Ready for Anything, Philadelphia, Pa.: Quirk Books, →ISBN, page 144, column 2:

     Then there was the motorized paraglider. I was actually lucky on this one—I had a full four days to practice on it. However, I was also dealing with a 10-pound (4.5 kg) motor on my back and a huge parachute that I had to learn to kite behind me.

6. (transitive, intransitive, banking, slang) 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.

   He was convicted of kiting checks and sentenced to two years in prison.

   • 1863, J Sheridan Le Fanu, “In Which Dr. Sturk Tries This Way and That for a Reprieve on the Eve of Execution”, in The House by the Church-yard. , volume II, London: Tinsley, Brothers, , →OCLC, pages 65–66:

     “An affair of honour!” said O’Flaherty, squaring himself. He smelt powder in everything.
     “More like an affair of dishonour,” said Toole, buttoning his coat. “He’s been ‘kiting’ all over the town. Nutter can distrain for his rent to-morrow, and Cluffe called him outside the bar to speak with him; put that and that together, sir.”

   • 2015, Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett, “Scandal and Resurrection”, in Carolina Israelite: How Harry Golden Made Us Care about Jews, the South, and Civil Rights, Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, →ISBN, page 163:

     The fame and money brought in by Only in America meant no more name changes, no need to kite checks, and no sneaking past the landlord.

7. (transitive, intransitive, US, slang, by extension) To steal.
   • 1982 August 27, Stephen King, “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption”, in Different Seasons, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →ISBN; republished in Stephen King Goes to the Movies, 1st Pocket Books paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, February 2009, →ISBN, page 470:

     Andy also kept a box of that [steel wool] in his cell, although he didn't get it from me—I imagine he kited it from the prison laundry.

   • 2001, Stephen King, Dreamcatcher: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, →ISBN; 1st Gallery Books trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Gallery Books, January 2018, →ISBN, page 611:

     Little bastards were always trying to kite stuff, particularly the candy and the girly magazines.

8. (intransitive) To travel by kite, as when kitesurfing.

   We spent the afternoon kiting around the bay.

   • 2010, Alastair Vere Nicoll, “An End and a Beginning”, in Riding the Ice Wind: By Kite and Sledge across Antarctica, London, New York, N.Y.: I.B. Tauris, →ISBN:

     If we kited again, it would be very dangerous with the steep slope and the heavy weight crashing on behind us and, in any event, Pat and Dave's kites were ridiculously tangled.

   • 2008, Ranulph Fiennes, “Solo South”, in Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know, London: Hodder Paperbacks, →ISBN:

     A rare north wind and conditions of good visibility allowed me to try my luck at kiting again. Without stopping for chocolate and taking quick gulps of energy orange from my Thermos, I kited 117 miles in one day.

9. (intransitive, figuratively) To move rapidly; to rush.
   • 1857, Sara T L Robinson, “Arrest of G. Jenkins and G. W. Brown”, in Kansas; Its Interior and Exterior Life. , 7th edition, Boston, Mass.: Crosby, Nichols and Company; Cincinnati, Oh.: George S. Blanchard; London: Sampson Low, Son & Co., →OCLC, page 263:

     They commenced whipping their horses at the base, and, as one of the prisoners expressed it, "they went kiting up the hill, and for nearly a mile after the summit had been gained."

   • 1876 June 13, George S. Thompson (witness), “Testimony Taken by the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Justice in Reference to the Use of the Secret Service Fund”, in Index to Reports of Committees of the House of Representatives for the First Session of the Forty-fourth Congress, 1875–’76, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 297:

     Q. The supervisor of a particular district would go around in his carriage. […] They went kiting around for a couple of weeks?
     A. Yes, sir; for four weeks prior to election.
     Q. Were the carriages necessary?
     A. I didn't see any necessity for them.

   • 1915, Gene Stratton-Porter, “Little Brother”, in Michael O’Halloran, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, page 109:

     […] the big boy stuck his foot out so she fell. Nursie saw and started for her, but she scrambled up and went kiting for the bench, and climbed on it, […]

10. (intransitive, engineering, nautical) To deflect sideways in the water.
    • 1973 December 17, Clarence K. Chatten, Saul A. Eller, Reece Folb, Arthur P. Brisbane, Weather Resistant Segmented Fairing for a Tow Cable, US Patent 3,899,991 (PDF version), column 1:

      This column action causes the tow line to kite either to the port or the starboard side, […]

11. (intransitive, US, prison slang) To pass a (usually concealed) letter or oral message, especially illegally, into, within, or out of a prison.
    • 1961, Erving Goffman, “The Underlife of a Public Institution: A Study of Ways of Making Out in a Mental Hospital”, in Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates (Anchor; A277), Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, →OCLC; republished New Brunswick, N.J., London: Aldine Transaction, 2007 (2009 printing), →ISBN, footnote 166, page 301:

      Prison Hall in Central Hospital was claimed by some patients to be "organized" in the more extensive manner of prisons for the sane. Here, it was claimed, an attendant could be bribed to "kite" a letter or bring in contraband, […]

    • 1966, Rose Giallombardo, Society of Women: A Study of a Women’s Prison, New York, N.Y.: John Wiley & Sons, →OCLC, page 236:

      I have been working like a dam mule this morning and just found time to kite you.

• kite around
• kiter
• kiting (noun)

Uncertain; possibly:

• from Middle English kit, kitte (“wooden bucket or tub; (figuratively) belly”),^[5] possibly from Middle Dutch kitte (“wooden vessel of hooped staves”) (modern Dutch kit (“metal can used mainly for coal”)), further etymology unknown;^[6] or
• from Old Norse kýta (“bag, stomach (of a fish)”), from Proto-Germanic *kūtiz.
• from Middle English *kid (attested only in compounds such as kide-nẹ̄re (“kidney; region of the kidneys, loins”)), possibly from Old English *cyde, *cydde (“belly”),^[7] cwiþ (“belly; womb”), from Proto-Germanic *kweþuz (“belly, stomach”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷet-, *gut- (“rounding, swelling; entrails, stomach”), from *gʷu-, *gū- (“to bend, bow, curve, distend, vault”). The English word is cognate with Icelandic kviði (“womb”), kviður (“stomach”), kýta (“stomach of a fish; roe”), Middle Low German kūt (“entrails”), West Flemish kijte, kiete (“fleshy part of the body”).

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: kīt, IPA^(key): /kaɪt/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪt

kite (plural kites)

1. (Northern England, Scotland, dialectal) The stomach; the belly.
   • 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, “I Make Acquaintance of My Uncle”, in Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: , London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC, page 17:

     "You know my father's name?"
     "It would be strange if I didnae," he returned, "for he was my born brother; and little as ye seem to like either me or my house, or my good parritch, I'm your born uncle, Davie, my man, and you my born nephew. So give us the letter, and sit down and fill your kyte."

   • 1909, Charles Collins, Fred Murray (lyrics and music), “Boiled Beef and Carrots”, performed by Harry Champion; republished in John Mullen, “The Songs and Their Content”, in The Show Must Go On!: Popular Song in Britain during the First World War, Farnham, Surrey, Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, 2015, →ISBN, page 102:

     Don't live like vegetarians
     On food they give to parrots,
     Blow out your kite, from morn 'til night,
     On boiled beef and carrots.

• kyte (Scotland)

Borrowed from Coptic ⲕⲓⲧⲉ (kite), from Demotic qt, from Egyptian qdt.

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkiːtɛ/, /ˈkiːtə/^[8]

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -iːtɛ, -iːtə
• Hyphenation: ki‧te

kite (plural kite)

1. (Egyptology) A measure of weight equivalent to ¹⁄₁₀ deben (about 0.32 ounces or 9.1 grams).
   • 1981, Pierre Montet, “The Arts and the Professions”, in A R Maxwell-Hyslop, Margaret S Drower, transl., Everyday Life in Egypt in the Days of Ramesses the Great, Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press, →ISBN, page 167:

     […] in the great Harris papyrus, […] precise quantities are recorded by weight in terms of the deben (about 2½ oz.) and the qite (¼ oz.) of gold, silver, copper and precious stones, without any reference to their value. […] Five pots of honey were bought for five qite of silver and an ox for five qite of gold.

   • 1983, Allen B. Lloyd, “The Late Period, 664–323 BC”, in B G Trigger, B J Kemp, D[avid Bourke] O’Connor, A. B. Lloyd, Ancient Egypt: A Social History (Cambridge History of Africa), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, published 2001, →ISBN, page 328:

     t was found necessary to employ media of exchange, and emmer wheat and silver were both used for this purpose. The latter was particularly favoured, but it was normally treated by weight, being measured in kite (9.53 g) and deben (10 kite) in purely Egyptian contexts, though foreigners such as the Jewish mercenaries at Elephantine could use their own metrological systems.

   • 2003, Pascal Vernus, “The Plunder of Western Thebes”, in David Lorton, transl., Affairs and Scandals in Ancient Egypt: Translated from the French, Ithaca, N.Y., London: Cornell University Press, →ISBN, page 25:

     The scribe of the temple Sedy set out with the pure priest and goldsmith Tuty for the frames; they removed one deben and three and a half qite of gold, which they took for the chief of the gang Pameniu.

   • 2016, Brian Muhs, “The Saite and Persian Periods (664–332 BCE)”, in The Ancient Egyptian Economy: 3000–30 BC, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 189–190:

     In the Saite and Persian Periods, Abnormal Hieratic and Demotic texts usually measure value as weights of silver. […] The weights of silver are almost always either the deben of 91 grams, or the kite of 9.1 grams. In the Persian Period, Demotic texts sometimes also refer to staters equated to two kite, or five to the deben.

   • 2017 May, Ralph Ellis, “King David”, in Solomon, Pharaoh of Egypt, 4th edition, Cheshire: Edfu Books, →ISBN, page 57:

     The shekel was an Israelite unit of weight that appears to have weighed about 10g, and so it is the rough equivalent of the Egyptian kite, which also weighed about 10g.

• qite

• kite (bird) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• kite (geometry) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• kite (sail) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• kite (toy) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• kite (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Joseph Wright, editor (1902), “KITE, sb.²”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: , volume III (H–L), London: Henry Frowde, , publisher to the English Dialect Society, ; New York, N.Y.: G P Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 459, column 2.

• tike

• (as particle) te

From French quitter (“leave”).

• IPA^(key): /kiˈte/

kite

1. leave
2. let
   • Haitian Creole Bible, Jòb 10.18:

     Bondye, poukisa ou te kite m' soti nan vant manman m'? Mwen ta mouri anvan pesonn ta wè m'.

     God, why did you let me leave my mother's belly? I would have died before anyone would have seen me.

kite

1. indicates imperative mood

   Kite yo pale. ― Let them speak.

kite

1. Rōmaji transcription of きて

From Proto-Polynesian *kite (compare with Hawaiian ʻike, Tahitian ʻite)^[1] from Proto-Oceanic *kita-i suffixed from *kita from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *kita (“to see”) (compare with Tagalog kita).^[2]

kite (used in the form kitea)

1. to see
2. to find, to perceive
3. to discover
4. to recognize, to detect

   Synonym: mōhio

kite

1. sight
2. perception
3. divination

   Synonym: matakite

• whakakite
• kitenga

• “kite” in John C. Moorfield, Te Aka: Maori–English, English–Maori Dictionary and Index, 3rd edition, Longman/Pearson Education New Zealand, 2011, →ISBN.

kite

1. Alternative form of kyte

kite (Cyrillic spelling ките)

1. inflection of kita:
   1. genitive singular
   2. nominative/accusative/vocative plural

kite

1. we, us (dual)

kite

1. one (impersonal)