kidney

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a bean-shaped excretory organ that filters urea and other waste from the blood and excretes them

   Urine passes out of the kidney to the bladder through ureters.

2. 2
   noun

   An organ in the body that filters the blood, producing urine.

   The liver and the kidneys of animals have long been gastronomically popular for their aphrodisiac properties.

3. 3
   noun

   Constitution, temperament, nature, type, character, disposition. (usually used of people)

   […] think of that, – a man of my kidney, – think of that, […]

4. 4
   noun

   A waiter.

   I once more desire my readers to consider that as I cannot keep an ingenious man to go daily to Will's under twopence each day merely for his charges, to White's under sixpence, nor to the Grecian without allowing him some plain Spanish, to be as able as others at the learned table; and that a good observer cannot speak with even Kidney at St. James's without clean linen; […]

5. 5
   noun

   This organ (of an animal) cooked as food.

6. 6
   name

   A surname from Irish.

Etymology

From Middle English kideney, kydeney, alteration of earlier kidenere (“kidney”) after ey (“egg”), of obscure origin and formation. Probably a compound consisting of Middle English *kidde (“sack”) + Middle English nere (“kidney”). The first element would be from Old English *cydde (“sack, scrotum”), from Proto-Germanic *kuddijā (“sack”), as the terms for testicle and kidney were often interchangeable in Germanic (compare Old High German nioro (“kidney", also "testicle”), Old Swedish vig-niauri (“testicle”)); the second is from Old English *nēora or Middle Low German nêre (“kidney”), from Proto-…