slang. [perh. f. KID sb.1 in sense ‘make a kid of’; cf. KIDDY v.; also COD v.3] trans. To hoax, humbug, try to make (one) believe what is not true. Hence Kidding vbl. sb.; Kidder, one who hoaxes or humbugs.
1811. Lex. Bal., Kid. To coax or wheedle…. To amuse a man or divert his attention while another robs him.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., s.v. Kid-rig.… To kid a person out of any thing, is to obtain it from him by means of a false pretence.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 425/1 (Farmer). He kids them on by promising three times more than the things are worth.
1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL. 505/1. I thought they was only kidding (deceiving) at first.
1895. Daily News, 27 Nov., 2/5. The prisoner had told him that since he had been in Holloway he had ‘kidded’ the doctor into the belief that he was insane, and that he intended to ‘kid’ the judge.
