kid

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A child or young person (informal).

   She's just a kid, so it's normal for her to have imaginary friends.

2. 2
   verb

   To joke with someone or tease them in a friendly way.

   Don't worry, I'm only kidding you.

3. 3
   noun

   A young goat.

   The farmer kept the new kid close to its mother.

Multiword verbs with kid

• kid around Phrasal verb A2

  to joke or tease playfully

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Kid probably comes from Old Norse kith and originally referred to a young goat. Its use for a young person emerged from late seventeenth-century slang for a baby or child and became established in the nineteenth century.

From Middle English kide, from Old Norse kið (“young goat”), from Proto-Germanic *kidją, *kittīną (“goatling, kid”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *gʰaydn-, *ǵʰaydn- (“goat”) or Proto-Indo-European *gidʰ- (“kid, goatling, little goat”). Compare Swedish and Danish kid, German Kitz and Kitze, Albanian kedh and kec. The sense of child has been in use since the 1590s as slang, and since the 1840s in informal use.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary