Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word kite. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word kite, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say kite in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word kite you have here. The definition of the word kite will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofkite, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
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 equallength, 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 jibtopsails(the triangular sail at the front between the topmast and the bowsprit) were sometimes termed kites (sense 11).
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; […]
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 [Bacon], “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, […]
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.
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.
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.
deteſted kite, thou li[e]ſt[.] [M]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,
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Spanish: cometa(es)f(especially Spain, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, Uruguay), barrilete(es)m(Argentina, Guatemala, Nicaragua), cachirulo(es)m(Eastern Central Spain), chichiguaf(Dominican Republic), chiringaf(Puerto Rico), lechuza(es)f(Nicaragua), pandero(es)m(Southern Spain), pandorga(es)f(Southern Spain, Paraguay, Northeastern and Northern Central Argentina, Western Uruguay), papagayo(es)m(Venezuela, Southeastern Mexico), papalote(es)m(Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico), papelote(es)m(Honduras), petaca(es)f(Northwestern Venezuela), piscuchaf(El Salvador), volador(es)m(Bolivia, Eastern Venezuela), volantín(es)m(Chile, Cuba, Central and Eastern Bolivia, Western Central and Northwestern Argentina, Northwestern Venezuela, Western Puerto Rico)
geometry: a polygon resembling the shape of a traditional toy kite; a quadrilateral having two pairs of edges of equal length, the edges of each pair touching each other at one end
[…] 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!"
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 [Thomas] 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.
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.
“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.”
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.
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.
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.
[…] 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, […]
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, […]
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.
to pass a (usually concealed) letter or oral message, especially illegally into, within, or out of a prison
Etymology 2
Uncertain; possibly:
from Middle Englishkit, kitte(“wooden bucket or tub; (figuratively) belly”),[5] possibly from Middle Dutchkitte(“wooden vessel of hooped staves”) (modern Dutchkit(“metal can used mainly for coal”)), further etymology unknown;[6] or
"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.
[…] 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.
[I]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.
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.
^ James P[eter] Allen (2010) “Lesson 9. Numbers.”, in Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 105: “qdt "qite" ("KEY-teh")”.
^ Tregear, Edward (1891) Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary, Wellington, New Zealand: Lyon and Blair, page 183
^ Ross, Malcolm D., Pawley, Andrew, Osmond, Meredith (2016) The lexicon of Proto-Oceanic, volumes 5: People, body and mind, Canberra: Australian National University, →ISBN, page 492
Further reading
“kite” in John C. Moorfield, Te Aka: Maori–English, English–Maori Dictionary and Index, 3rd edition, Longman/Pearson Education New Zealand, 2011, →ISBN.