Kiss mine A-se. An offer, as Fielding
observes, very
frequently made, but never, as he could
learn, literally
accepted. A kiss mine a-se fellow;
a sycophant.
Kissing crust. That part where the loaves
have touched
the oven.
Kit. A dancing-master, so called from his
kit or cittern, a
small fiddle, which dancing-masters always
carry about
with them, to play to their scholars.
The kit is likewise
the whole of a soldier’s necessaries,
the contents of his
knapsack: and is used also to express
the whole of different
commodities: as, Here, take the whole
kit; i.e. take
all.
Kit-cat club. A society of gentlemen,
eminent for wit
and learning, who in the reign of queen
Anne and George
I. met at a house kept by one Christopher
Cat. The
portraits of most of the members of this
society were painted
by Sir Godfrey Kneller, of one size; thence
still called the
kit-cat size.
Kitchen physic. Food, good meat roasted
or boiled. A
little kitchen physic will set him up;
he has more need of
a cook than a doctor.
Kittle pitchering. A jocular method
of hobbling or
bothering a troublesome teller of long
stories: this is done
by contradicting some very immaterial
circumstance at
the beginning of the narration, the objections
to which
being settled, others are immediately
started to some new
particular of like consequence; thus impeding,
or rather
not suffering him to enter into, the main
story. Kittle
pitchering is often practised in confederacy,
one relieving
the other, by which the design is rendered
less obvious.
KITTYS. Effects, furniture; stock in trade.
To seize one’s
kittys; to take his sticks.
Knack shop. A toy-shop, a nick-nack-atory.
KNAPPERS poll. A sheep’s head. Cant.
Knave in grain. A knave of the
first rate: a phrase
borrowed from the dyehouse, where certain
colours are said to
be in grain, to denote their superiority,
as being dyed with
cochineal, called grain. Knave in
grain is likewise a pun
applied to a cornfactor or miller.
Knight of the blade. A bully.
Knight of the post. A false evidence,
one that is ready
to swear any thing for hire.
Knight of the rainbow. A
footman: from the variety
of colours in the liveries and trimming
of gentlemen of
that cloth.
Knight of the road. A highwayman.
Knight of the sheers. A taylor.
Knight of the thimble, or needle. A taylor or stay-maker.


