sb. [f. KICK v.1 + -ER1.]
1. One that kicks; spec. a horse or other animal given to kicking.
1573–80. Baret, Alv., K 45. A kicker or winser, calcitro.
1611. Beaum. & Fl., King & No King, IV. iii. The boy … being thorowly kick’d, laughs at the kicker.
1660. Sanderson, Serm., II. 411. The Persecutors … kick against the pricks … which pierce into the heels of the kicker.
1884. St. James’s Gaz., 10 Sept., 4/2. The camel … is a powerful kicker.
b. fig. One who protests, objects or rebels; one who breaks away from his party. Chiefly U.S.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., II. III. lxiii. 459. He who takes his own course is a Kicker or Bolter.
1893. J. J. Ingalls, in Harper’s Mag., April, 709/2. The pioneer is radical, impatient of dogmas, and a ‘kicker’ by instinct.
2. A cricket-ball that rises more than usual in rebounding from the pitch.
1894. N. Gale, Cricket Songs, Ode to W. G. Nothing comes amiss, Kicker, shooter, yorker.
3. Mining. ‘A liberating catch made in the form of a bell crank lever rocking on a horizontal axis’ (Gresley, Gloss. Coal Mining, 1883).
4. Mining. See quots. [perh. a distinct word.]
1747. Hooson, Miner’s Dict., L j, Kicker [is] a Branch or small piece of Wholes, left for the support of some Rider or large Stone, or else some Lid.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Kicker, ground left in first cutting a vein, for support of its sides.
