kamikaze
1. One of the World Ward II Japanese pilots who intentionally crashed their planes into targets; a fighter plane used for suicide missions by japanese pilots in World War II.
2. A pilot trained and willing to cause a suicidal crash.
3. An airplane of a kamikaze pilot.
4. One who behaves in a reckless and dangerous manner.
5. Of or pertaining to a kamikaze, suicidal.
Examples:
1) Some of his troubles stemmed from a devastating vodka-based cocktail called a Kamikaze. (Munn, Michael. "Hollywood rogues". - London: Robson Books Ltd, 1991)
2) "Telekinesis" roars away like a kamikaze jet nearing target. ("New Musical Express". - London: Holborn Publishing Group)
Etymology:
The word "kamikaze", which derives from the Japanese "kami" ("divine"), and "kaze" ("wind"), literally means "divine wind." The Japanese pilots who tried to halt the US invasion of Japan by crashing their planes into American warships were called kamikaze pilots.



kapellmeister

• maestro
• kapelle

[kuh-PELL-my-ster]
The director of a choir or orchestra.
Example:
Reverend Clayton was desperate - the Christmas season was approaching and he still hadn't found a new kappellmeister.
History, related words:
"Kapellmeister" originated as a German word - and in fact, even in English it is often (though not always) used for the director of a German choir. "Kapelle" once meant "choir" in German and "Meister" is the German word for "master." The Latin "magister" is an ancestor of both "Meister" and "master," as well as of "maestro," meaning "an eminent composer or conductor." "Kapelle" comes from "cappella," the Medieval Latin word for "chapel." As it happens, "kapelle" was also borrowed into English, first to refer to the choir or orchestra of a royal or papal chapel, and later to describe any orchestra. "Kapellmeister" is used somewhat more frequently than "kapelle" in current English, though neither word is especially common.


kaput

• faire capot
• faire
• capot
• etre capot
• etre

[kuh-PUT]
1. utterly finished, defeated, or destroyed
2. unable to function
Synonym: useless
Example:
Sylvia knew her DVD player was really kaput when she noticed the smell of something burning toward the back of it.
3. hopelessly outmoded
History:
"Kaput" originated with a card game called piquet that has been popular in France for centuries. French players originally used the term "capot" to describe both big winners and big losers. To win all twelve tricks in a hand was called "faire capot" ("to make capot"), but to lose them all was known as "etre capot" ("to be capot"). German speakers adopted "capot," but respelled it "kaputt," and used it only for losers. When English speakers borrowed the word from German, they started using "kaput" for things that were broken, useless, or destroyed.


keel over

• keel
• over

1. To collapse or fall over.
Examples:
1) The top of the party was when the boat keeled over and we turned out in the water.
2) I just about keeled over when I heard how much it will cost to get my car fixed.
2. to die suddenly.
Examples:
1) Grandpa keeled over out in the garden.
2) I just about keeled over when I heard how much it will cost to get my car fixed.
Etymology: A 'keel' is the lower part of a ship that provides strength. When a ship sinks, the keel flips over. This phrase compares passing out or dying to the sinking of a ship.


keep a stiff upper lip

• keep
• stiff upper lip
• stiff
• upper lip
• upper
• lip
• keep your chin up
• keep one's chin up
• keep up
• chin

To stand proud, behave in a conceited manner; to be brave, face trouble bravely; to be brave and not show emotion in a time of trouble.
Examples:
1) The prisoners tried hard to keep a stiff upper lip in spite of the hardships of the prison.
2) Even when the boss yelled at Nyasha for dropping the soup in the lady's lap, she kept a stiff upper lip.
History, synonyms:
This American expression was first used in the early 1800s. When a person is frightened or angry or ready to burst into tears, his or her lips often tremble. So if you're told to "keep a stiff upper lip," someone wants you to hide your feelings. You may wonder why the idiom refers only to the upper lip and not to both lips. It might have to do with the fact that in the 1800s, when many men grew mustaches, a trembling upper lip was more noticeable. A similar expression is "keep your chin up."


keep a straight face

• keep
• straight face
• straight
• face

Not to smile or laugh, have a a poker face; not to expose emotions; not to reveal one's feelings through facial express; to keep from laughing.
Examples:
1) When you said I was your uncle, I couldn't keep a straight face.
2) When you see Ms. Navarro's new haircut, try to keep a straight face.
History:
This is a recent idiom. When you laugh, your face wrinkles, your mouth opens wide, your eyebrows rise, and your facial muscles twist and turn. Your face is anything but "straight".

keep an ear to the ground

• keep one's ear to the ground
• have an ear to the ground
• have one's ear to the ground
• one's ear to the ground
• ear to the ground
• keep
• ear to the ground
• keep
• ear
• ground

To direct one's attention to the way things are going, or seem likely to go, or to the way people feel and think; to listen to public opinion, pay attention to the opinion of the general population; to pay attention and be well-informed.
Examples:
1) The city manager kept an ear to the ground for a while before deciding to raise the city employees' pay.
2) Reporters keep an ear to the ground so as to know as soon as possible what will happen.
3) Years ago my uncle kept his ear to the ground and invested in cable TV, and today he's a millionaire.
Synonym: have an ear to the ground
History:
In the late 1800s, when this expression first came into use, European Americans
and Native Americans often fought. To tell if the enemy was riding toward them on
horseback, people would actually put an ear right to the ground. They could often hear the sound of the hooves of approaching horses. Today this expression means to watch and listen closely to signs that might show the way things will go in the future.

keep an eye on

• keep an eye on the ball
• keep an eye
• keep on
• keep
• eye

To watch very carefully; to guard; to place under surveillance.
Examples:
1) You have to keep an eye on those workers. One of them has been stealing french fries. 2) I'm going outside for a minute -- would you keep an eye on my books?
Etymology:
Through your 'eyes' you see and understand the world, and when you 'keep an eye' on something, you constantly watch or monitor it to get a full understanding of what is happening.


keep body and soul together

• keep
• body
• soul
• together
• keep the wolf from the door
• keep from
• keep
• wolf
• door

To remain sane and solvent, to earn enough to feed and clothe oneself; to keep alive, to survive; to have just enough to survive.
Synonym: keep the wolf from the door.
Examples:
1) He has been working very hard to try and keep body and soul together after his illness.
2) He got a job that paid so little, he was barely able to keep body and soul together.
History:
In the early 18th century, people were beginning to use this expression. Those who lose their money and possessions often also lose their self-respect. But if they earn just enough money to clothe, house, and feed themselves, though they may not have a fancy house or expensive things, at least they will always have their body and soul.



keep it vanilla

• keep it
• vanilla
• keep

keep it simple; keep it plain

keep one's fingers crossed

• keep your fingers crossed
• keep
• finger
• crossed
• cross

1. To keep off danger.
2. To try to help make a wish come true; to wish for good luck and success for someone or something.
3. To make a lie not to be counted.
Examples:
1) "What do you want for Christmas, Carmen?" asked Jose. "Well, I'd like to have a bicycle, but I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that my grandmother will be out of the hospital by Christmas Day."
2) We need a home run to win. Keep your fingers crossed.
History:
This old American expression may come from the superstition that the cross works
to keep away evil and bad luck. It may also come from children's games in which the
players crossed their fingers to keep safe. Today, some people believe that if they cross
their fingers when they tell a lie, the lie doesn't "count".

keep one's head above water

• keep your head above water
• over one's head
• over your head
• keep
• one's head above water
• your head above water
• head above water
• head
• above
• water

To survive, have just enough to live, get by; to earn enough to stay out of debt and avoid financial ruin; to do just enough to keep up with all of one's responsibilities.
Examples:
1) With a part-time job, I was able to keep my head above water.
2) Business is bad this season, and Dad is barely keeping his head above water.
History:
In several idioms, water represents possible trouble. Think of "jump off the deep end", "between the devil and the deep blue sea", and "pour oil on troubled waters". The idiom "keep your head above water" hints at the risk of drowning. "Water", in this case, represents going bankrupt or being ruined financially.


keep one's nose to the grindstone

• keep your nose to the grindstone
• keep one's nose to
• grindstone
• keep one's nose
• keep
• nose

To force oneself to work hard all the time; always to keep busy; to continue to work hard.
Examples:
1) Keep your nose to the grindstone and you'll pass the final exam.
2) My grandfather told me that if I wanted to succeed I had better keep my nose to the grindstone.
History, related idioms:
Erasmus, a Dutch scholar, used a similar saying in the 1500s. A grindstone is a
revolving stone disk used for polishing or sharpening tools or grinding grain. To see what
you're doing while you work a grindstone you have to bend over it with your face close to
the stone. The image of a person with his or her "nose to the grindstone" has come to mean working nonstop over a long period of time, often at a long and tiring job. The nose is used in many idioms: "by a nose," "keep your nose clean," "no skin off one's nose", "nose around in something," "nose out of joint," "on the nose," "pay through the nose."

keep one's shirt on

• keep your shirt on
• keep on
• keep
• shirt

To remain cool; not to become angry; to be patient; be calm, do not rush me, don't get your shirt...
Examples:
1) "When we asked Dad to hurry, he'd say, 'Keep your shirt on.' "
2) The referee saw the two players shouting at each other and told them to keep their shirts on.
History:
In the mid-1800s, when this saying first came into use, a man who was going to get into a fistfight with someone often took his shirt off. It wasn't easy to fight in a stiff, starched shirt, and if you took it off, it wouldn't get wrinkled, dirty, or bloody.


keep smth. under one's hat

• keep under one's hat
• under one's hat
• keep to oneself
• keep under
• keep to
• oneself
• keep
• under
• hat

To keep secret; not tell. (Often used as a command.)
Examples:
1) Mr. Jones knew who had won the contest, but he kept it under his hat until it was announced publicly.
2) I'll tell you who won the election, but you've got to keep the results under your hat.
Synonym: keep to oneself
History:
This expression comes from the late 1800s, when many more men and women wore hats than they do today. Your head is under your hat. So if someone tells you to keep a bit of news under your hat, he or she is telling you to keep it in your head and not reveal it to anyone else.

keep the wolf from the door

• keep from
• keep
• wolf
• door
• keep body and soul together
• keep together
• body and soul
• body
• soul
• together

To keep from suffering poverty or starvation; to prevent hunger and poverty; keep smb. fed.
Examples:
1) This cheque will keep the wolf from the door. We can buy food.
2) He got two extra jobs just to keep the wolf from the door.
Synonym: keep body and soul together
History:
Wolves have always been extremely hungry, hunting animals. People are rightfully afraid of the big, bad wolf. Poverty and starvation are as scary as a wolf. Since the 16th century, people have been saying that if you have just enough to get by, you're "keeping the wolf from the door."


keep up with the Joneses

• keep up with
• he Joneses
• keep up
• Joneses
• keep

To try to maintain the same standard of living as someone else; to try to be the same as your neighbors; to try to keep up with what your neighbors have socially and financially; to work hard to have possessions as good as your neighbors.
Examples:
1) He always worries about keeping up with the Joneses and is always frustrated.
2) The man next door got a new car, so my cousin got one too. He has to keep up with the Joneses.
History:
In 1913 a popular comic strip called "Keeping Up with the Joneses" appeared in many American newspapers, starting with the "New York Globe". The cartoon was about the experiences of a newly married young man, and the cartoonist based it on his own life. He chose the name Jones because it was a popular name in America. The name of the comic strip became a popular expression that meant to try hard to follow the latest fashion and live in the style of those around you.


kelter

• kilter

Also: kilter.
(>colloq.) regular order or proper condition; in working order
Example:
If the organs of prayer be out of kelter or out of tune, how can we pray?
Etymology:
The word was once widely known in various English and Scots dialects from at least the 16th century onwards. Cf. Gael. & Ir. "cealt clothes"; Gael. "cealltair spear, castle, cause, prov"; Eng. dial. "kelter" (1606). There were several other dialect senses of "kelter", including that of money or property, rubbish or litter, silly talk or nonsense, or - as a verb - to move in an undulating manner. The origin is unknown, though the word might have derived from "kilt". On the other hand, some investigators think that the word started to be spelled "kilter" only in the 17th cent.


ken
1. Perception; understanding; knowledge.
2. The range of vision.
3. View; sight.
1) He was to make several important discoveries, the most significant being that infantile paralysis was caused not by germs, as cerebrospinal meningitis had been, but by a mysterious agent just then emerging into the ken of science. (James Thomas Flexner, "Maverick's Progress")
2) So we are predisposed - if not preprogrammed - to accept tales of animals who display human motives, understanding, reason, and intentions. It takes a far greater imagination to conceive the possibility that a dog's mental life may assume a form that is simply beyond our ken. (Stephen Budiansky, "If a Lion Could Talk")
3) Libussa, the youngest, particularly beautiful, unworldly and serious, was able to see what was hidden from other people's ken and to prophesy. (Peter Demetz, "Prague in Black and Gold")
Etymology, more examples:
"Ken" is from Middle English "kennen", from Old English "cennan" ("to declare, to make known").
"Ken" appeared on the English horizon in the 16th century as a term of measurement of the distance bounding the range of ordinary vision at sea - about 20 miles. British author John Lyly used that sense in 1580 when he wrote, "They are safely come within a ken of Dover." Other 16th century writers used "ken" to mean "range of vision" ("Out of ken we were ere the Countesse came from the feast." - Thomas Nashe) or "sight" ("'Tis double death to drown in ken of shore." - Shakespeare). Today, however, "ken" rarely suggests literal sight. Rather, "ken" nowadays almost always implies a range of comprehension, understanding, or knowledge.


kerfuffle

• disturbance
• fuss
• Fuffle
• carfuffle
• curfuffle

(chiefly British) disturbance, fuss
Example:
The school board's proposal to drop Shakespeare from the curriculum caused such a kerfuffle that the plan was soon scrapped.
Etymology:
"Fuffle" was first used in Scottish English, as early as the 16th century, as a verb meaning "to dishevel". The addition of the prefix "car-" (possibly derived from a Scottish Gaelic word meaning "wrong" or "awkward") didn't change the meaning of the word considerably. In the 19th century "carfuffle", with its variant "curfuffle", became a noun, and in the mid-20th century it was embraced by a broader population of English speakers and standardized to "kerfuffle". There is some dispute among language historians over how the altered spelling came to be favored. One theory holds that it might have been influenced by imitative words like "kerplunk" and "kerplop," where the syllable "ker-" is simply added for emphasis.


kibosh

• put the kibosh on

[KYE-bahsh]
something that serves as a check or stop
Example:
She was all for turning them in to the authorities and you put the kibosh on that. (Mickey Spillane, "The Big Kill")
History:
For over a century "kibosh" (in slang phrase "to put the kibosh on" - "to destroy, terminate, ruin, prevent, stop") has taxed the ingenuity of etymologists. It was prominent enough in lower-class London speech to attract the attention of Charles Dickens, who used it in 1836 in an early sketch, but little else is certain. Claims were once made that it was Yiddish, despite the absence of a plausible Yiddish source. Another hypothesis points to Irish "caidhp bhais", or "cie bais", literally, "coif (or cap) of death", explained as headgear a judge put on when pronouncing a death sentence, or as a covering pulled over the face of a corpse when a coffin was closed. But evidence for any metaphorical use of this phrase in Irish is lacking, and "kibosh" is not recorded in English as spoken in Ireland until decades after Dickens' use. Or it may somehow be connected with Turkish "bosh", but neither this version is proved.


kick one's ass

• kick your ass
• kick
• ass

To beat decisively; to give a severe beating; to rough someone up.
Example:
Don't mess with the bouncer unless you want him to kick your ass.

kick out

• kick
• dismiss
• fire
• fire out

(Slang) To expel, throw out, get rid of (smb.).
Synonyms: dismiss, fire out
Example:
His mother does not believe that he's been kicked out of the college.


kick the bucket

• kick
• bucket
• buy the farm
• conk
• drop dead
• pop off
• choke
• croak
• buy
• farm
• drop
• dead
• pop
• snuff
• snuff it
• cash in one's chips
• give-up the ghost
• cash in
• cash
• chip
• chips
• give up
• give
• ghost

(Informal) To die, pass away; to be dead
Examples:
1) The man who used to clean the walls at the factory kicked the bucket last week.
2) The old man finally kicked the bucket.
3) During the summer my Mom's 1970 Thunderbird kicked the bucket.
Synonyms:
buy the farm, conk, drop dead, pop off, choke, croak, snuff it, cash in one's chips, give-up the ghost
History:
This expression was used in England as early as the 16th century. It came from the practice of hanging a criminal by having him stand on a bucket, putting a noose around his neck, and then kicking the bucket out from under him. Prisoners who committed suicide by hanging themselves in their cells sometimes kicked a bucket out from under their own legs. Today this slang expression can be applied to any manner of death.



kill
the most general word, applying to any kind of death-dealing activity.
Examples:
a drought that killed our fruit trees;
an insecticide to kill cockroaches;
two people killed in a car accident

kill the bottle

• kill the bottle of smth.
• kill the bottle of
• kill
• bottle

1. To consume entirely; finish off.
Example:
We killed a bottle of brandy in an hour.
2. To get drunk. Example:
Look here, Dan has killed the bottle, he's as drunk as a lord.
Synonyms:
to drink oneself blind; to be as drunk as the devil


kill the goose that lays the golden eggs

• kill
• goose
• lay
• lays
• golden
• egg
• eggs

To lose or destroy the source of wealth; to spoil or destroy something good out of stupidity, greed, or impatience.
Examples:
1) If we pollute the environment, we kill the goose - we lose it all.
2) Don't be obnoxious to Aunt Ruthie when she gives you money. You'll kill the goose that lays the golden egg.
History:
There's a fable by Aesop about a farmer who owns a goose that lays one golden egg at a time. The greedy farmer becomes impatient and kills the goose so he can get all the eggs that are in the goose at once. Of course, a dead goose can't lay any more eggs, as the foolish farmer soon finds out. In 15th-century England, the plot of this well-known story helped create the famous phrase, "kill the goose that laid the golden eggs."


kill time

• kill the time
• kill an hour
• kill
• time
• hour

to spend time doing sth that is not important while you are waiting for sth else to happen.
Example:
We killed time playing cards.


kill two birds with one stone

• kill
• bird
• stone
• two

To do only one thing in order to accomplish two goals; to do two things by one action; to get two results with just one effort.
Examples:
1) I'm going to do my homework while I ride the exercise bicycle. That way I'll kill two birds with one stone.
2) At the library, Nico can kill two birds with one stone. He does his schoolwork and sees
his friends.
History:
There was a similar expression in Latin about 2, 000 years ago, and "kill two birds with one stone" became popular in English many centuries later. It comes from hunting birds by throwing stones at them or shooting stones at them with a slingshot. If you actually killed two birds with just one stone, a practically impossible feat, you'd be carrying out two tasks with just a single effort.

killfile
Another name for the ignore list; found within newsreaders, a list of undesirable authors or threads to filter out.
Examples:
1) A killfile is a utility found in most newsreaders which allows one to avoid seeing, to move or to delete posts which fit certain rules, which you can set. Each newsreader does it in a different way. They also call killfiles by different names. They are often not even files.
2) *sigh* Welcome to my killfile, jerkweed.
Etymology:
Kill + file. Term originates from Usenet (aka the newsgroups), where a killfile served the same purpose there that the ignore list serves on EverQuest.


king Charles's head

• king Charles
• head
• king
• Charles

eccentricity, peculiarity, craze, hang-up
Example:
Its author takes some pains to appear rational and considered, but the effect of his book is more of a well-turned-out mature gentleman who buttonholes one at a party and drones on about his preculiar obsession - or, like an updated version of the character Mr Dick, from "David Copperfield", who cannot keep off the subject of King Charles's head.
History:
King Charles I lost his head by being executed in 1649, though this historical fact has only a tangential link to the phrase you're asking about. The allusion is to something that's an obsession with a person, especially one that keeps intruding irrelevantly into other matters. It's a literary reference. Mr Dick, a gentle lunatic in Charles Dickens' "David Copperfield", lives with David's aunt, Betsy Trotwood. For about ten years, Mr Dick had been trying to write a petition, a memorial, to the Lord Chancellor on the subject of some imagined dispute, exactly what the book never makes clear, but the subject of King Charles's head keeps intruding into the text. Betsy Trotwood discusses his affliction at one point with the young David: "'Did he say anything to you about King Charles the First, child?' 'Yes, aunt.' 'Ah!' said my aunt, rubbing her nose as if she were a little vexed. 'That's his allegorical way of expressing it. He connects his illness with great disturbance and agitation, naturally, and that's the figure, or the simile, or whatever it's called, which he chooses to use.'" The allusion was picked up by other writers and by about the 1890s had become common, as you can tell from a gently waspish comment by George Gissing in "Charles Dickens: A Critical Study" (1898): "The craze about King Charles's head has been, and is likely to be, a great resource to literary persons in search of a familiar allusion."


kipper

• kippering

[KIP-er]
1. A male salmon or sea trout during or after the spawning season.
2. A kippered herring or salmon.
Example:
The traditional British breakfast of kippers and eggs was threatened in the 1980s, when overfishing by foreign ships seriously depleted herring stocks in the North Sea.
History, more examples, related words:
An American visiting Scotland once reported to "The New York Times" that "a kipper is prepared by taking a herring fresh (no more than 24 hours out of the water), plump, oily (15 percent or more fat content is best), soaking it in a saltwater brine and smoking it slowly over a fire composed of oak chips." This process of creating a kipper (called "kippering") goes back to at least the 18th century, but the word "kipper" dates all the way back to before the 12th century, when it was spelled "cypera" and was used specifically to mean "a spawning salmon." "Cypera" is related to the Old English word for copper ("coper") and may have been suggested by the salmon's color.


kismet
[KIZ-met; -mit]
Destiny; fate.
Examples:
1) It's pure kismet when these two find each other. (Janet Maslin, "'The Mighty': Talents to Make Buddies - Walking and Wisecracking," New York Times, October 9, 1998)
2) Winning wasn't essential, though it seemed kismet that Cone, for a second straight year, came back from injury to pitch in a game that clinched a bit of postseason bliss. (Claire Smith, "Cone Puts the Yankees' Minds at Ease," New York Times, September 21, 1997)
3) Applewhite's writings are heavy with kismet: he said he was visiting a hospitalized friend when Mrs. Nettles entered the room and their eyes locked in a shared recognition of esoteric secrets. (Barry Bearak, "Eyes on Glory: Pied Pipers of Heaven's Gate," New York Times, April 28, 1997)
Etymology:
"Kismet" comes (via Turkish) from Arabic "qismah" ("portion, lot").


kiss and make up

• kiss
• make up
• make

become reconciled (with smb.)
Example:
After the meeting Mandela and Buthelezi kissed and made up.


kiss good-bye

• kiss goodbye
• kiss smth. good-bye
• kiss smb. good-bye
• kiss smth. goodbye
• kiss smb. goodbye
• kiss
• goodbye
• good-bye
• kiss off
• kiss smth. off
• kiss smb. off

Also: kiss goodbye
(informal)
1. To leave.
2. To be forced to regard as lost, ruined, or hopeless.
Example:
She can kiss her vacation plans goodbye.
Synonym: kiss off.
Etymology:
"Kiss" from Middle English, from Old English "cyssan"; akin to Old High German "kussen" ("to kiss") + "good-bye" - 1591, from "godbwye" (1573), itself a contraction of "God be with ye", infl. by "good day, good evening", etc.



kiss of death

• kiss
• death

Something that is ruinous; an action that results in failure or loss.
Example:
Moreover, Presbyterian nationalism was given the kiss of death by the Act of Union of 1707, which most of the influential Presbyterian politicians and clergymen supported. (T. Harris, "Politics under the Stuarts")


kiss off

• kiss
• kiss goodbye
• kiss smth. good-bye
• kiss smb. good-bye
• kiss smth. goodbye
• kiss smb. goodbye
• goodbye
• good-bye
• kiss good-bye
• kiss smth. off
• kiss smb. off

(slang)
Also: kiss-off
1. To dismiss lightly
Example:
She kissed the other performers off as mere amateurs.
Synonym:
kiss good-bye
2. To reject somebody or something abruptly.
Example: The boss kissed off that idea fast.
3. To be compelled to give something up; to be forced to yield something.
Example: We had to kiss the trip off for lack of money.
4. To leave immediately or leave somebody alone.
Example:
Why don't you tell him to kiss off?
Synonym:
go away.
5. A dismissal, esp. when hasty or rude.
Example:
The company is about to give you the kiss-off, so you'd better start looking for another job.
6. End; death.
Example:
When the kiss-off comes, I hope to be asleep. 7. (billiards, pool) kiss
8. (acronym) Keep It Simple, Stupid - Or Face Failure


kiss the dust

• bite the dust
• lick the dust
• kiss
• dust
• bite
• lick

(slang)
1. To die; to be slain; to fall dead especially in battle; to be killed.
2. To suffer humiliation or defeat; to be defeated; to fall face down in the dirt.
3. To fall prostrate to the ground.
4. To fail.
5. To come to an end.
6. To become irreparable; to break down.
Synonyms:
to bite the dust
to lick the dust
Examples:
1) I won't kiss the dust before him.
2) In Psalm lxxii. 9 it is said, "his enemies shall lick the dust."
3) His car finally bit the dust.

kiss-and-tell

• kiss
• tell

(informal) telling details of private matters; revealing an earlier sexual experience with somebody else, especially when the information, considered to be confidential, is made public
Example:
1) Contrary to making it plain that they were just friends, Simon had indulged in some imaginary kiss-and-tell. (E. Oldfield, "Sudden fire")
2) Now everyone can read a kiss-and-tell memoir by a Presidential aide.



kitchen pass

• kitchen
• pass

Permission from one's spouse to attend an event or go on an outing.
Examples:
1) Wolfgang Kern, 40, joined the free-play [chess] tournament Saturday afternoon for a few quick games. He and his wife recently had their first child, so getting out of their Allen home for chess tournaments isn't possible if they are daylong affairs. "I have to get the kitchen pass from my wife to go play, but it's fun." (Tiara M. Ellis, "No-frills tournament just cuts to the chess", The Dallas Morning News, January 25, 2004)
2) My wife's favorite hors d'oeuvre is ceviche made from triggerfish, so it's usually easier for me to get a "kitchen pass" for my next fishing trip if I return home with a couple of trigger fillets in the cooler. (George McKinney, "On the Reef", Pensacola News Journal (Pensacola, FL), October 23, 2003)
History:
The phrase source and its early usage are unclear. The 1992 "Times" cite below talks about the Kitchen Pass Club, but the article also mentions that the club was formed in the late 1970s. It doesn't say, however, whether the club used that name from the beginning or switched to it later on: "Upper-Crust executives in the San Francisco Bay area go to Bohemian Grove for their retreat. The Silicon Valley technology crowd's idea of relaxation is the Consumer Electronics Show. And the executives of the real estate- and construction-related industries that support high technology in the valley get their kicks courtesy of the Kitchen Pass Club. Last week, for example, members of the club were diving in the Red Sea... These are businessmen who grew up in the area when it was still known as the Santa Clara Valley. Their world is less that of lone-wolf entrepreneurs than of social groups engaging in old-fashioned macho hobbies... Indeed, the Kitchen Pass name, a groaner for outsiders and even some club members nowadays, came from the idea that each member of the all-male club needed permission from his wife to go." (Michael S. Malone, "The Driving, Diving Boys of Silicon Valley," The New York Times, October 11, 1992)


kitsch

• kitschy

[KITCH]
1. Something that appeals to popular or lowbrow taste and is often of poor quality.
2. A tacky or lowbrow quality or condition.
Example:
On the route up the mountain, there is plenty of kitsch (from teepees to giant dinosaur replicas) to entice campers to visit the roadside shops.
History, related words:
"The fashionable clothing label...kicked off the revival last June..., putting its models in [Carmen] Miranda-inspired swimsuits and marching them through a gantlet of 50 tons of bananas," writes Mac Margolis in "Newsweek International" (January 2006) of a fabulously kitschy gala commemoration for the late Brazilian singer and actress Carmen Miranda. Since English-speaking people borrowed "kitsch" from German in the 1920s, it has been their word for things in the realm of popular culture that dangle, like car mirror dice, precariously close to tackiness. But although things that can be described with "kitsch" and the related adjective "kitschy" are clearly not fine art, they may appeal to certain tastes - some folks delight in velvet paintings, plastic flamingos, dashboard hula dancers, and Carmen Miranda revivals!


kitty
1. informal terms referring to a domestic cat
2. young domestic cat
3. the combined stakes of the betters
Example:
The rest of the kitty will be divided among the other 21 clubs on a sliding scale in units of £35,000. ("Today". London: News Group Newspapers Ltd, 1992)
4. the cumulative amount involved in a game (such as poker)
Example:
First But Derek always calls the next one up the stop the kitty game.
History:
Just to get it out of the way, it has no connection with the pet name for a cat. Maybe, the word came from an old North Country English term for a prison. That's the explanation put forward in the various Oxford dictionaries. But there is another possibility. The most frequent usage of "kitty" is that of some fund of money for communal use made up of individual contributions. You might, for example, go to the pub with a group of friends and have a whip round for contributions to a kitty to pay for the first rounds of drinks. Or a club might pay for the tea and biscuits at meetings by arranging to have a kitty. This sense is first recorded in the 1880s. Though it had close associations with poker games in its earliest recorded examples, it seems not to have been the name for the prize pot itself, but instead for a sum taken out of the pot to pay for the expenses of the game, such as buying drinks or a house percentage. For example, in 1935, Alvin Pollock wrote in a book called 'The Underworld Speaks" that the kitty was the "money taken from virtually every gambling pot for purpose of profits or expenses". Going back in time half a century, we know that "kitty" was a term in various northern English dialects for a prison or house of correction. It's a modified form of "kidcote" (a word which has had several spellings), once known from English counties such as Yorkshire and Lincolnshire - prisons of this name once existed in Wakefield, York, Lincoln, Gainsborough and Lancaster among other places. "Kidcote" is recorded from the sixteenth century, but had become obsolete by the time the English Dialect Dictionary was compiled at the end of the nineteenth century. That work quotes several sources to show that a kidcote was usually a temporary lock-up or holding cell in which prisoners were put overnight to await their appearance before magistrates. It seems to have been a facetious term, since it probably literally meant a pen for a young goat ("kid" plus "cote", a little cottage, so a close relative of "dovecote"). Oxford Dictionaries say that the money sense of "kitty" comes from the prison sense. One writer, not from Oxford Dictionaries, has suggested that the money in the kitty was so called because it was taken out of general circulation and, as it were, locked up or imprisoned until it was needed. Now, let us turn to another suggestion, though there's no more evidence for it than for the other one. It's asserted, especially in some American dictionaries and also in the Collins dictionary, that it's from the much older "kit" for a set of articles needed for a particular purpose, such as a soldier's kit, so that a "kitty" would be a diminutive form, a small kit. If so, it would be a relative of the American "whole kit and caboodle"; that might be relevant, as the first known example of the word is from a little book on the rules of draw poker written by John Keller and published in New York in 1887.

kkk

• H
• hhh
• KKK

(chat, Internet) alternate form of "handshakes for all"; KKK - white robes for all

kludge

• kluge

[KLOOJ]
A system and especially a computer system made up of poorly matched components.
Example:
The original satellite contrivance was the asynchronous satellite downlink with a phone connection uplink. This was doomed to fail because it was a kludge. (John C. Dvorak, "Boardwatch Magazine", February 2002)
History, another spelling:
The first recorded use of the word "kludge" is attributed to Jackson W. Granholm, who defined the word in a 1962 issue of the magazine "Datamation" as: "an ill-assorted collection of poorly-matching parts, forming a distressing whole." He further explained that it was derived from the German word "klug," meaning "smart" or "witty." Why Granholm included a "d" in his spelling is not known. What we do know is that speakers of American English have agreed to keep it silent, making the vowel pronunciation of "kludge" reflect the pronunciation of German "klug" ([KLOOK]). We can also tell you that not everyone agrees with Granholm on the "d" matter: the spelling "kluge" is also popularly used.


klutz
A clumsy person; an awkward or physically incompetent individual.
Example:
I should never have let you hold my favorite vase - you are such a klutz!
Etymology:
From the Yiddish word 'klots', meaning 'blockhead' - a stupid person.


knee high to a grasshopper

• knee-high to
• grasshopper
• knee-high
• knee
• high
• knee-high to a toad
• toad
• knee-high to a mosquito
• knee-high to a bumblebee
• knee-high to a duck
• duck
• knee-high to a splinter
• splinter

1. Small or short, the size of a child.
2. Very young and, therefore, very short.
Examples:
1) When we lived in Oslo, you were just knee high to a grasshopper.
2) Mr. Fernandez always reminds me that he knew me when I was just knee-high to a grasshopper.
History, synonyms:
This American expression was first recorded in 1814 as "knee-high to a toad."
Some people said knee-high to a toad, mosquito, bumblebee, or duck. Some even said
"splinter", which definitely doesn't have knees, but is small. "Grasshopper" caught on
about 1850 because they definitely have knees, and the saying stuck. To come up to the
knee of a grasshopper, one would be less than an inch tall!

knee-jerk

• knee
• jerk
• patellar reflex
• patellar
• reflex

[NEE-jerk]
1. Patellar reflex.
2. Readily predictable; reacting in a readily predictable way; automatic.
Examples:
1) The park committee's knee-jerk response to the jungle-gym accident was to close the playground for the summer.
2) "As a salesman, I'm getting a bit weary of the knee-jerk association of a con artist with my professional calling," a correspondent once wrote to "The New York Times Magazine".
History:
Around 1876, the sudden involuntary extension of the leg in response to a light blow just below the knee, which is also known as the "patellar reflex," was given the refreshingly simple designation "knee jerk." In the 1950s, "knee-jerk" became an adjective with a figurative sense that doesn't require any actual twitching. "Knee-jerk" often has a negative connotation. It usually denotes a too-hasty, impulsive, perhaps even irrational response that is often based on preconceived notions.


knocked up

• be knocked up
• knocked
• knock up
• knock

pregnant; generally used in a negative sense.
Example: She got knocked up by her boyfriend.

know the ropes

• know
• ropes
• rope

To be seasoned, well-informed; to be experienced in a given situation. To be familiar with the job process.
Example: After a few weeks on the job, you'll know the ropes.
Etymology: Most likely of a nautical origin--in reference to sailors knowning how to tie the ship's rigging.

knuckle sandwich

• knuckle
• sandwich

A punch in the face.
Examples:
1) If you don't stop bothering me, you're going to get a knuckle sandwich. 2) Sabah gave Peter a knuckle sandwich when she caught him looking at other girls.
Etymology: A 'sandwich' is an assortment of food between two pieces of bread, and 'knuckles' are the bones in your hand. So a 'knuckle sandwich' is a fist that goes straight toward your mouth.

knucklehead

• knuckle-head
• knuckle
• head
• bonehead
• idiot
• bone head
• bone
• head

A stupid person.
Examples:
1) Charlie's a real knucklehead -- he's been in first grade for five years! 2) You knucklehead! How could you have mixed the the dog food with the cereal?
Etymology: A 'knuckle' is a joint or a place where bones meet, particularly the bones of the hand. This word suggests that someone's head looks like or has been hit by a hand, thus making the person stupid. And for whatever reason, the phrase just sounds funny.
Synonyms: bonehead, idiot

kobold

• Cobalt

[KOH-bold]
In German folklore, a haunting spirit, gnome, or goblin.
Examples:
1) Witch, kobold, sprite... and imp of every kind. (A. J. Symington)
2) This world and the other, too, are always present to his mind, and there in the corner is the little black kobold of a doubt making mouths at him. (James Russell Lowell, "Among My Books")
3) The Kobolds were a species of gnomes, who haunted the dark and solitary places, and were often seen in the mines. (Sir Walter Scott, "Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft")
Etymology:
"Kobold" comes from Middle High German "kobolt" ("goblin"). Cobalt, the metal, "the goblin of the mines," was named by those who had to work it after the kobold, since the ore contains arsenic, which made the miners ill.


kookaburra

• laughing jackass
• laughing
• jackass

a large arboreal Australian kingfisher, Dacelo novaeguineae (or gigas), with a cackling cry
Example:
Yes, the laughing kookaburra does have a distinctive voice, described as "a boisterous laugh, a rising staccato shouted 'kook-kook-kook-ka-ka-ka', which then fades"; it is unlike that of any other bird in the world. ("BBC Wildlife", London: Wildlife Publications Ltd, 1992)
Etymology:
19th century: from a native Australian language
Synonym: laughing jackass


kow tow

• kow tow to
• kowtowing
• kowtow
• kow
• tow
• brown nose
• brownnose
• suck up to
• suck up
• suck
• fawn
• toady
• truckle
• bootlick

Also: kowtow
1. A former Chinese custom of touching the ground with the forehead as a sign of respect or submission.
2. Act of bowing low, act of kneeling and touching one's forehead to the ground; servile act.
3. To bow low, kneel and touch one's forehead to the ground; to grovel, act in a servile manner; to accept without question; to do as someone wishes; to try to gain favor by cringing or flattering.
Examples:
1) Marie won't kowtow to anyone. She's proud and independent.
2) He is always kowtowing to his boss.
Synonyms:
brown nose, brownnose, fawn, toady, truckle, bootlick, suck up to.
Etymology:
Kowtow, from the Chinese term "kou tou", is the act of deep respect shown by kneeling and bowing so low as to touch the head to the ground. While the phrase "ke tou" is often used in lieu of the former in modern Chinese, the meaning is somewhat altered: "kou" originally meant "knock with reverence", whereas "ke" has the general meaning of "touch upon (a surface)".
In imperial Chinese protocol, the kowtow was performed before the emperor. Current Chinese etiquette does not contain any situations in which the kowtow is regularly performed in front of a living human being, although it may occur in rare and extreme cases where one is begging for forgiveness or offering an extreme apology. The kowtow is often performed in groups of three before Buddhist statues and images or tombs of the dead. A sequence of three sets of kowtow was an extreme gesture of respect. The person would stand up and kneel down again between each set, hence the term "three kneelings and nine kowtows".
"Kowtow" came into English in the early 19th century to describe the bow itself, but its meaning soon shifted to describe any slavish support or grovelling.
"Kowtow" was very important in the diplomacy of China with European powers, since it was required to come into the presence of the Emperor, but it meant submission before him. Dutch traders had no problem to kowtow since they represented themselves, but the British embassies of George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney (1793) and William Pitt Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst (1816) were foiled since kowtowing would mean acknowledging the King as a subject of the Emperor.

kowtow
[KOW-tow] ("ow" as in "cow" in both syllables)
1. To show obsequious deference; fawn.
2. To kneel and touch the forehead to the ground in token of homage, worship, or deep respect.
Example:
Martin kowtows to our boss every chance he gets, complimenting him on his suits and offering favors.
Etymology:
"Kowtow" originated as a noun referring to the act of kneeling and touching one's head to the ground as a salute or act of worship to a revered authority. In traditional China this ritual was performed by commoners making requests to the local magistrate, by the emperor to the shrine of Confucius, or by foreign representatives appearing before the emperor to establish trade relations. (In the late 18th century, some Western nations resisted performing the ritual, which acknowledged the Chinese emperor as the "son of heaven.") The word "kowtow" derives from Chinese "koutou," formed by combining the verb "kou" ("to knock") with the noun "tou" ("head"). The noun had arrived in English by 1804, and the earliest evidence for the verb dates from 1826.


kvell
to be extraordinarily proud
Synonym: rejoice
Example:
"[Critics] will kvell over El Greco's uncanny anticipation of latter-day artistic trends, his proto-cubism, his precocious expressionism...." (Ariella Budick, "Newsday", October 2003)
History:
The history of "kvell" is far from a megillah, so don't kvetch. Etymology-meisters have determined that the word is derived from Yiddish "kveln," meaning "to be delighted," which, in turn, comes from the Middle High German word "quellen," meaning "to well, gush, or swell." The Merriam-Webster mavens whose shtick is dating words have not pinpointed an exact date for the appearance of "kvell" in the English language. They have found an entry for the word in a 1952 handbook of Jewish words and expressions, but actual usage evidence before that date remains unseen. (The words "megillah," "kvetch," "meister," "maven," and "shtick" are also of Yiddish origin.)


kvetch
[KVECH]
1. To complain habitually.
2. A complaint.
3. A habitual complainer.
Examples:
1) People kvetched when someone else wouldn't relinquish his position. (Barry Lopez, "Before the Temple of Fire." Harper's Magazine, January 1998)
2) They begin to look like malcontents who kvetch about the weather so much that they don't notice the sun coming out. (David Shenk, "Slamming Gates," The New Republic, January 26, 1998)
3) Time for my biennial kvetch about the West End theatre. (Simon Hoggart, "Hose bans, petrol mania: saying 'don't panic' always triggers chaos," The Guardian, November 4, 2000)
4) "He's just a very up person," she says, which is odd, because he is also a big complainer, a class-A kvetch. (Penny Wolfson, "Moonrise," The Atlantic, December 2001)
5) He had difficulty getting American publishers for his later novels, partly because of his self-created image by then as a crusty old kvetch. (Geoffrey Wheatcroft, "What Kingsley Can Teach Martin," The Atlantic, September 2000)
Etymology:
"Kvetch" comes from Yiddish "kvetshn" ("to squeeze, to complain"), from Middle High German "quetzen, quetschen" ("to squeeze").