kit

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   young of any of various fur-bearing animals

   a fox kit

2. 2
   noun

   A kind of basket made especially from straw of rushes, especially for holding fish; by extension, the contents of such a basket or similar container, used as a measure of weight.

   He was pushing a barrow on the fish dock, wheeling aluminium kits which, when full, each contain 10 stone of fish.

3. 3
   noun

   A collection of items forming the equipment of a soldier, carried in a knapsack.

   Dudes! You simply have too much stuff in your kit! But don't sweat it, I can buy some stuff you don't need.

4. 4
   noun

   Any collection of items needed for a specific purpose, especially for use by a workman, or personal effects packed for travelling.

   Always carry a good first-aid kit.

5. 5
   noun

   A collection of parts sold for the buyer to assemble.

   I built the entire car from a kit.

6. 6
   noun

   The standard set of clothing, accessories and equipment worn by players.

   A sell-out crowd of 10,000 then observed perfectly a period of silence before the team revealed their black armbands, complete with stitched-in poppies, for the match. After Fifa’s about-turn, it must have been a frantic few days for the England kit manufacturer. The on-field challenge was altogether more straightforward.

7. 7
   noun

   Clothing.

   Get your kit off and come to bed.

8. 8
   noun

   The whole set; kit and caboodle.

   Do you know the proportion between ten and twelve or thirteen? — No; I should suppose you may take the whole kit of them as thirty; and the rest are people at from twenty to forty years of age.

Etymology

From Middle English kyt, kytt, kytte, from Middle Dutch kitte (“a wooden vessel made of hooped staves”). Related to Dutch kit (“tankard”) (see below). The further etymology is unknown. Perhaps from Proto-Germanic *kitjō-, *kut-, which would be related to the root of Dutch kot (“ramshackle house”), itself of non-Indo-European origin. The transfer of meaning to the contents of a soldier's knapsack dates to the late 18th century, extended use of any collection of necessaries used for travelling dates to the first half of the 19th century. The further widening of the sense to a collection of parts…