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kite

Pronunciation: /kaɪt/

The English word “kite” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A bird of prey of the family Accipitridae.
  2. 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).
  3. 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.
  4. Some species in the subfamily Perninae.
  5. A rapacious person.
  6. 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.
  7. A tethered object which deflects its position in a medium by obtaining lift and drag in reaction with its relative motion in the medium.
  8. A planetary configuration wherein one planet of a grand trine is in opposition to an additional fourth planet.
  9. 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.
  10. An accommodation bill (“a bill of exchange endorsed by a reputable third party acting as a guarantor, as a favour and without compensation”).
  11. A rider who is good at climbs but less good at descents.
  12. 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.
  13. An aeroplane or aircraft.
  14. 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.
  15. A spinnaker (“supplementary sail to a mainsail”).
  16. The brill (Scophthalmus rhombus), a type of flatfish.
  17. A (usually concealed) letter or oral message, especially one passed illegally into, within, or out of a prison.

verb

  1. To cause (something) to move upwards rapidly like a toy kite; also (chiefly US, figuratively) to cause (something, such as costs) to increase rapidly.
  2. 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.
  3. To keep ahead of (an enemy) and repeatedly attack it from a distance, without exposing oneself to danger.

Etymology

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”), from Proto-West Germanic *kūtijō, diminutive of Proto-West Germanic *kūt (“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…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.