[f. KICK v.1 + -ING1.] The action of the vb. KICK, in various senses.
1552. Huloet, Kyckynge, calcitratio.
1612. Sir H. Nevill, in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.), I. 112. Much kicking there is both against you and me severally, but more against the coupling of us together.
1842. S. Lover, Handy Andy, iii. 25. Her sobs, and … little stampings and kickings, amazed young gallipot.
1869. Ld. Clermont, Fortescue-Family Hist., II. ix. 138. Having missed every shot … from the excessive ‘kicking’ of the gun.
b. attrib., as kicking-distance, room, etc.: kicking-muscle, the muscle that raises the femur in kicking; kicking-strap, a strap adjusted to prevent a horse from kicking; also fig.
1838. J. L. Stephens, Trav. Greece, etc. 40/1. I … measured off space enough to fit my body, allowing turning and kicking room.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., vi. (1889), 56. They had … his belly-band buckled across his back, and no kicking strap.
1866. W. B. Hawkins, Artistic Anat. Horse (ed. 3), 72. Prominent on the front and outer part of the haunch is the glutæus medius.… It has been called the ‘kicking muscle.’
1897. R. Talbot Kelly, in Century Mag., 562/2. Not to allow one’s horse to approach within kicking-distance of another.
