1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. etc., ii. 511. Some bottles has great
kicks at their bottoms.
1864. Scotsman, 29 June, ... fraudulently manufactured bottles,
which by reason of an oblong cavity in the bottom (called in London
a kick) contain from 10 to 20 per cent less than the due quantity.
1864. Left Her Home, p. 65. The bottle fell on the kick, and being
made of strong glass ... did not break.
7. in pl. (old).—Breeches; trousers. Also kicksters and kicksies: cf.
Hams.
English synonyms. Arse-rug; bum-bags; bell-bottoms; bum-curtain; bags;
calf-clingers; canvasseens, (q.v.); continuations; don’t-name-’ems;
ducks; gam-cases; hams; inexpressibles; ineffables; inimitables; kicks;
kickseys; moles; mustn’t-mention-’ems; peg-tops (q.v.); pants;
rice-bags; sit-upons; skilts (q.v.); slacks (q.v.); strides;
trolly-wags; trucks; trunks (q.v.); unhintables; unmentionables;
unutterables; unwhisperables; whistling breeches (q.v.).
French synonyms. Un benard (popular); la braillande or braillarde
(thieves’); les calinettes (common); la cotte (= blue canvass working
trousers); la culbute or le culbutant (thieves’); un fourreau (thieves’
= sheath); le fusil à deux coups (popular = the double-barrel); les
grimpants (popular); les inexpressibles (from the English); les
haut-de-tire (thieves’); le montant.
Portuguese synonym. Os trózes.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Kicks, breeches.
1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4th ed.) p. 12. Kicksey, Breeches.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v. Tip us your kicks, we’ll have them as
well as your Lour.
1785. Grose, Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
1811. Lex. Bal., s.v.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib, p. 13. That bedizen’d old Georgy’s bang-up
togs and kicks.
1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, p. 6. Reg. Stick it into him for a
new pair of kickses, by-and-by.
1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, iii. 5. Jist twig his swell kickseys and
pipes; if they ain’t the thing, I’m done.
1859. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, xxx. ‘There’s togs, too,’ he
pursued, looking with proper pride at his own attire, ‘the sooner
you peels off them cloth kicksies the better.’
1859. G. W. Matsell, Vocabulum, or the Rogue’s Lexicon. Kersey-mere
kicksies, any colour, built very slap with the artful dodge, from
three caroon.
c. 1867. Broadside Ballad, ‘The Chickaleary Bloke’. Now kool my
downy kicksies.... Built upon a plan very naughty.
1883. Daily Telegraph, August 7, p. 6, col. 1. What he termed ‘the
saucy cut of his kicksies,’ and which, rendered into intelligible
English, signified the smart style of his trousers.
1885. The Stage, p. 129. Whitechapel costers who wore slap-up
kicksies, with a double fakement down each side, and artful buttons
at bottom.
1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, 76. He’d a apron, Charlie, and
kicksies as must ha’ been cut by his wife.
1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 31. ‘A good thing
Cinderella’s grand ball was a little before your time, Stringy, or
she’d been out of it with these kickseys,’ remarked Tony Peters
gravely.