kite

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A light frame covered with paper or fabric, flown in the wind on a long string.

   On windy spring days, we would fly kites.

2. 2
   noun

   A bird of prey with long wings and a forked tail.

   A pair of kites built a nest on the cliff.

3. 3
   verb

   To fly a kite.

   I like to kite when the wind is right.

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…

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