1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. ... But of all the rare compounds
known to Eastern bar-rooms, few ever reach his secluded home. Nor
would he appreciate the bewitching softness of ‘Long Linked
Sweetness,’ or the ecstacy produced by a ‘kiss-me-quick’—he likes
to take it strong and hot.
Kist-o’-whustles, subs. (Scots’).—An organ.
1640. Lesly’s March [Minst. Scot. Border (1812), ii. 11]. And the
kist-fou of whistles, That mak sic a cleiro.
1864. Letter in Glasgow Herald, 10 Dec. We have had, especially in
our city churches, highly trained choirs, and we have now at our
doors, clamouring for admission, the kist o’ whistles, the horror
of former generations of Scotchmen.
1870. Orchestra, May. By a majority of seventy-two the English
Presbyterian Synod has vindicated the right of congregations to
adopt the kist fu’ o’ whistles in their church services if they be
so minded. The fight fought in Regent Square Church recently was
hotly contested.
Kit, subs. (old).—1. A dancing master.—New Cant. Dict. (1725); Grose
(1785); Lex. Bal. (1811); [From Kit = a small violin].
2. (popular).—A person’s baggage or impediments; an outfit; a
collection of anything. The whole kit = the lot; the whole gridiron or
the whole boiling. In American, the kit and boodle.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Kit ... likewise the whole of a
soldier’s necessaries, the content of his knapsack, and is used
also to express the whole of different commodities; here take the
whole kit, i.e., take all.
1811. Lex. Bal., s.v.
1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, xxxiv. ‘Hush!—hush!—I tell you it shall
be a joint business.’ ‘Why, will ye give me half the kitt?’ ‘What,
half the estate?—d’ye mean we should set up house together at
Ellangowan.’
1820. Shelley, Œdipus Tyrannus, 1. Now, Soloman, I’d sell you in a
lump The whole kit of them.
1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, i. ch. xiv. I need hardly say that my
lord’s kit was valuable, but what was better they exactly fitted
me.
1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, xxv. ‘Ah! I see ’em,’ said Mrs.
Gamp; ‘all the whole kit of ’em numbered like hackney-coaches,
ain’t they?’
1846. Punch, ii. p. 44. ‘I’ve got a wife—more fool I—and a kit o’
children wuss luck!’
1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, x. He has since devoted his time to
billiards, steeple-chasing, and the turf. His headquarters are
Rummer’s, in Conduit Street, where he keeps his kit, but he is ever
on the move in the exercise of his vocation as a gentleman jockey
and gentleman leg.
1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, xl. ‘Blast you every one, from
the judge in his wig, to the colonist a stirring up the dust. I’ll
show you a better gentleman than the whole kit on you put
together!’