Forms: 3–5 kide, 4–5 kyde, kede; 4–6 kyd(de, (5 kydd), 4–7 kidde, 4– kid. [ME. kide, kede, kid, commonly regarded as ad. ON. kið (Sw., Da. kid):—OTeut. *kiðjom, related to G. kitz, kitze from OHG. chizzî, kizzîn:—OTeut. *kittîn from orig. *kiðnīn.
The final -e of ME. kĭde is not explicable from ON. kið, but the initial k makes it still more difficult to refer the word to any OE. type.]
1. The young of a goat (cf. quot. 1562).
c. 1200. Ormin, 7804. Þe firrste callf, þe firrste lamb, þe firrste kide, and swillke.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 1535. Two kides he fette and brogt es hire.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 3672 (Gött.). Iacob went in to þe fold, And broght þe kiddes.
1382. Wyclif, Exod. xxiii. 19. A kydde.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Miller’s T., 74. She koude skippe and make game As any kyde [v.rr. kede, kid(e] or calf folwynge his dame.
1450–80. trans. Secreta Secret., 32. Kedis, lambis, and geldid shepe.
1562. Bulleyn, Bk. Simples (1579), 75. They remaine Kiddes for six monethes, and afterward … be called Goates.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. vi. 14. Leaping like wanton kids in pleasant Spring.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 344. Sporting the Lion rampd, and in his paw Dandl’d the Kid.
1720. Gay, Poems (1745), I. 78. Neither lamb nor kid nor calf … Dance like Buxoma.
1887. Bowen, Virg. Eclogue, I. 23. Puppies resembled the hound, and the kids their mother the goat.
† b. A young roe-deer during its first year. Obs.
So G. kitz in various districts (Bavaria, Tyrol, etc.); cf. OHG. rêchkizzi, MHG. rêchkitze.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, E iv. Iff ye of the Roobucke will knaw … The first yere he is a kyde soukyng on his dame. [Hence in Turberville (1576), Manwood (1598), and later writers.]
1597. 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass., II. v. 891. The Roa-bucke is the first yeare a Kid, the second yeare a Girle, the third yeare a Hemuse.
1891. C. Wise, Rockingham Cast. & Watsons, 152.
c. A young antelope.
1884. G. O. Shields, in Harper’s Mag., Aug., 365/2. There are five of them [antelopes]—two bucks, a doe, and two kids.
2. The flesh of a young goat.
c. 1430. Two Cookery-bks., 13. Take Vele, Kyde, or Henne, an boyle hem in fayre Water.
1547. Boorde, Introd. Knowl., xvi. (1870), 274. Yonge Kyddes flesshe is praysed aboue all other flesshe … Olde kydde is not praysed.
1888. E. P. Sanguinetti, in Harper’s Mag., June, 82/2. Our attendants now produced some kid and dried dates, which … formed our meal.
3. a. The skin of a kid. b. Leather made from kid-skins, or from lamb-skins, or other substitutes; chiefly used in the manufacture of gloves and shoes; pl. gloves (or boots) made of this leather.
1677. Grew, Anat. Fruits, vi. § 9. Having as it were, only a Coat of Kid, but this of good thick Buff.
1686. Lond. Gaz., No. 2124/4. Stolen…, about 350 of the best Kids, some ready pared, and some in the Crust.
1837. Thackeray, Ravenswing, iv. His … hands are encased in lemon-coloured kids.
1876. Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., xxxix. A figure … tall and physically impressive even in his kid and kerseymere.
1891. N. Gould, Double Event, 151. A pair of yellow kids on his delicate hands.
4. sing. or pl. (Rendering L. hædus or hædi.) A pair of small stars in the constellation Auriga, represented as kids held in the hand of the charioteer. Cf. kid-star below.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XIX. ix. 134. Considering it grew toward the end of Autumne, and the starre named the Kids were risen.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 206. The setting Kid, sad Hyads, he safe sees.
5. slang. A child, esp. a young child. (Originally low slang, but of late frequent in familiar speech.)
[1599. Massinger, etc. Old Law, III. ii. I am old, you say, Yes, parlous old, kids, an you mark me well!]
1690. D’Urfey, Collin’s Walk, IV. 183. At her Back a Kid that cry’d, Still as she pinch’d it, fast was ty’d. Ibid. (1719), Pills (1872), II. 193. Send your kid home to me, I will take care on ’t.
1841. Ld. Shaftesbury, Jrnl., 16 Aug., in Life (1886), I. ix. 347. Passed a few days happily with my wife and kids.
1861. Morris, in Mackail, Life (1899), I. 161. Janey and kid (girl) are both very well.
1894. Mrs. Lynn Linton, One too Many, I. vi. 132. The mother cannot live, and the poor little kid must have gone to the workhouse.
b. In low sporting or criminal circles: A term of admiration for an expert young thief, pugilist, etc.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., Kid,… particularly applied to a boy who commences thief at an early age; and when by his dexterity he has become famous, he is called by his acquaintances the kid so and so.
1820. Sporting Mag., VI. 79. The heavy torrents of rain informed the kids upon opening their peepers, that the game would again be put to the test.
1823. J. Badcock (Jon Bee), Dict. Turf, s.v., People who imagine that all kids are thieves—carry the joke too far.
1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood (Farmer). Two milling coves … Vere backed to fight for heavy stake; But … Both kids agreed to play a cross.
† c. In American Colonies. (see quots. Obs. (Cf. KIDNAP.)
1724. H. Jones, Virginia, 53. The Ships … often call at Ireland to victual, and bring over frequently white Servants, which are of three Kinds…. 2. Such as come bound by Indenture, commonly call’d Kids, who are usually to serve four or five Years.
1895. J. C. Ballagh, White Servit. Virginia, 34–5. The class of so-called ‘Kids’ was supplemented by a smaller class of persons who went on agreements for fixed wages for a definite time.
6. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 1) kid-fell, -flesh, -leather (also attrib.), -milk; kid-like adj.; † kid-crow [CREW2], a pen for kids; † kid-fox, ? a young fox (in quot. fig.); kid-star = sense 4. Also KID-GLOVE, -SKIN.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric., Dict. Rust. (1681), 328. A *Kid-crow, a place for a sucking Calf to lye in.
1346. in Riley, Mem. London (1868), 234. [For the hundred skins of] hyndescalves, 8s.; *kiddefelles, 8s.
1436. Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 160. Wolle, wadmole, gotefel, kydefel also.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 95. Good fleisch, as motoun of a weþer, *kide fleisch sowkynge.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, II. iii. 44. The musicke ended, Wee’ll fit the *kid-foxe with a penny worth.
1687. Congreve, Old Bach., IV. viii. The daughters only tore two pair of *kid-leather gloves with trying them on.
1851. Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib., 581. Ladies’ and gentlemen’s coloured kid gloves,… Kid leather gloves … manufactured from French dressed kid skins.
1881. Trollope, Ayala’s Angel, I. vii. 85. Then Ayala did go away, escaping by some *kid-like manœuvre among the ruins.
1866. Conington, Æneid, IX. 314. The *Kid-star lowering overhead.
