kite

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a plaything consisting of a light frame covered with tissue paper

   The child flew a kite.

2. 2
   verb

   to fly a kite

   I like to kite when the wind is right.

3. 3
   verb

   to soar or fly like a kite

   The pilot kited for a long time over the mountains.

4. 4
   verb

   to get credit or money by using a bad check

   The businessman kited millions of dollars before they were caught.

5. 5
   verb

   to increase the amount of a check fraudulently

   They kited many checks.

6. 6
   noun

   A bird of prey of the family Accipitridae.

   A pair of kites built a nest on the cliff.

7. 7
   noun

   A rapacious person.

   deteſted kite, thou li[e]ſt[.] [M]y traine, and^([sic – meaning are]) men of choiſe and rareſt parts, that all particulars of dutie knowe, and in the moſt exact regard, ſupport the worſhip of their name, [...]

8. 8
   noun

   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.

   On windy spring days, we would fly kites.

Etymology

Uncertain; possibly: * from Middle English kit, kitte (“wooden bucket or tub; (figuratively) belly”), possibly from Middle Dutch kitte (“wooden vessel of hooped staves”) (modern Dutch kit (“metal can used mainly for coal”)), further etymology unknown; or * from Old Norse kýta (“bag, stomach (of a fish)”), from Proto-Germanic *kūtiz. * from Middle English *kid (attested only in compounds such as kide-nẹ̄re (“kidney; region of the kidneys, loins”)), possibly from Old English *cyde, *cydde (“belly”), cwiþ (“belly; womb”), from Proto-Germanic *kweþuz (“belly, stomach”), from Proto-Indo-European *g…