6. (old).—See quot. For synonyms see Amputate and Skedaddle. Also Kick
it.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v. Kick’d. The Rum Cull kick’d away, i.e.,
The Rogue made his escape.
Kick in the guts, subs. phr. (old).—A dram of spirits.—Grose (1785).
To get more kicks than ha’pence, verb. phr. (colloquial).—See monkey’s
allowance.
1861. Trollope, Framley Parsonage, xix. In all this matter I have
harassed myself greatly to oblige you, and in return I have got
more kicks than halfpence.
1824. Scott, St. Ronan’s, xxxiv. ‘Which is like monkey’s allowance,
I suppose,’ said the traveller, ‘more kicks than halfpence.’
1856. C. Kingsley, Letter, May [3rd abridged ed. 1879]. You fellows
worked like bricks, spent money, and got midshipman’s half-pay
(nothing a day, and find yourself) and monkey’s allowance (more
kicks than half-pence).
To kick over the traces, verb. phr. (colloquial).—(1) To go the pace
(q.v.); and (2) to resist authority.
1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, xlii. ‘I’ll go about with the rogue.
He is inclined to kick over the traces, but I’ll whip him in a
little.’
1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 10. It’s a sort of
kick-over-the-traces, a thing as all females enjoy.
To kick up a breeze (or dust, row, diversion, lark, shindy, etc.) verb.
phr. (common).—To create a disturbance; to raise Cain (q.v.); to paint
the town red (q.v.).
1759. Smollett, Letter to Wilkes, quoted in D. Hannay’s Smollett
(1887), p. 132. If the affair cannot be compromised we intend to
kick up a dust, and die hard.
1764. O’Hara, Midas, 1. ii. Nor doubt I, with my voice, guitar, and
person, Among the nymphs to kick up some diversion.
1770. Colman, Oxonian in Town, 1. ii. Ten to one but there’s a
riot—we’ll kick up a dust, I warrant you.
1771. G. A. Stevens, Songs Comic and Satyrical, 144. The patron of
voices said ’twould go for the wench Unless that a dust he could
kick up.
d. 1796. Burns, The Rights of Women. Would swagger, swear, get
drunk, kick up a riot.
1812. Coombe, Syntax, Picturesque, C. xxii. I wish to know, Sir,
what you mean, By kicking up, Sir, such a scene!
1819. Moore, Tom Crib, p. 5. Something may happen to kick up a
breeze.
1844. Puck, p. 14. The rows that they might kick up.
1871. Louisville Courier, 19 Mar. The ill-treatment of Mr. Sumner
will not be borne patiently by his friends and the New England
States; it is sure to kick up a row in the Republican party.
1878. Jas. Payn, By Proxy, ii. He means that you are much too
excited to be sane; that you are apt to kick up a row about nothing
at all.
To kick the wind, verb. phr. (old).—See quot. For synonyms see Aloft.
1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes, Dar de’ calci a Rouaio, to be hang’d,
to kicke the winde.
To get the kick out (or dirty kick out).—To be summarily dismissed,
discharged, or ‘kicked out’.
To kick the bucket, verb. phr. (common).—To die. For synonyms see
Aloft. Also kick and to kick stiff.—[Taylor: The allusion is to the way
in which a slaughtered pig is hung up—viz., by passing the ends of a
bent piece of wood behind the tendons of the hind legs, and so
suspending it to a hook in a beam above. This piece of wood is locally
termed a bucket, and so by a coarse metaphor the phrase came to signify
to die. Another says: To commit suicide by hanging; from a method
planned and carried out by an ostler at an inn on the Great North Road.
Standing on a bucket, he tied himself up to a beam in the stable, he
then kicked the bucket.] In West Indies Kickeraboo: see also Kick the
wind.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Kicks. He kicked the bucket one
day, he died one day.
1796. Wolcot (‘Peter Pindar’), Tristia (in Wks. 1812), v. 242. Pitt
kicked the bucket.
1797. M. G. Lewis, Castle Spectre, Epilogue. I drew my knife, and
in his bosom stuck it; He fell, you clapped—and then he kicked the
bucket!
1812. Colman, Poetical Vagaries, p. 55. Near thee doth a bucket
dangle. Chieftain, leave me not to drown; Save a maid without a
smicket. If the bucket come not down, Soon shall I be doom’d to
kick it.
1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle’s Log, xvi. Dat I believe him will eat
till him kickeriboo of sorefat (surfeit, I presumed).
1838. Selby, Jacques Strop, i. 1. A narrow escape of kicking the
bucket, was it not—eh, you rascal?
1849. Kingsley, Alton Locke, ii. Fine him a pot roared one, for
talking about kicking the bucket.
1853. Diogenes, ii. It is inferrible (on account of her great
dislike to the detective officer) that she, as well as Lady
Dedlock, kicked the bucket.
1858. Notes and Queries, 1 S. ix. 107. (q.v.).
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.
1867. Jas. Greenwood, Purgatory of Peter the Cruel, i. Tony Warren,
with tears in his honest eyes, endeavouring to pour rum down the
body’s throat, while in kindliest tones he begged of it to look up,
or at least make some sign that he had not quite kicked the bucket.
1871. London Figaro, 28 Jan. Yes! I’m going to kick the bucket.
1888. J. Runciman, The Chequers, 48. The Ramper fawned on me, and
asked me if I had heard of ‘that pore bloke wot kicked the bucket
upstairs.’
1890. Grant Allen, Tents of Shem, x. I’ve very little doubt Sir
Arthur, selfish pig though he is, will do the right thing in the
end before he kicks the bucket.
1892. Hume Nisbet, Bail Up, p. 105. Four on them sickened all at
once in the camp we had struck, and after they had kicked it, my
two mates went with me.
1892. Ally Sloper, 27 Feb., p. 67, col 2. But a miserly aunt kicks
the bucket at last And leaves you the fortune which she has
amassed.
To kick down the ladder, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To treat with
contumely one’s means of advancement.
1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, viii. She has struggled so
violently for polite reputation that she has won it; pitilessly
kicking down the ladder, as she advanced, degree by degree.
To kick the clouds (or wind), verb. phr. (thieves’).—See quot. For
synonyms see Ladder.
1811. Lex. Bal., s.v. Kick the bucket. To kick the clouds before
the hotel door, i.e. to be hanged.
To kick at waist, verb. phr. (tailors’).—To misfit at the waist.
To kick for the boot, verb. phr. (tailors’).—To ask for money.
To kick for trade, verb. phr. (tailors’).—To ask work.
To have the kick, verb. phr. (Athletic).—To be lucky; to have cocum
(q.v.).—[From football].
To kick the stuffing out of one, verb. phr. (American).—To maltreat; to
take a rise, or the wind out of; to get the better of.
To kick (or cool) one’s heels.—1. See Heels.