subs. (popular).—1. A fool; a sharper; a cruel and rapacious wretch. Fr. un buse. For synonyms, see BUFFLE and CABBAGE-HEAD.
1534. UDALL, Roister Doister, v. 5. Roister Doister, that doughtie KITE.
1605. SHAKESPEARE, King Lear, i. 4. Detested KITE! thou liest.
1639. FLETCHER, Wit without Money, i. 1.
| Cramming of serving-men, mustering of beggars, | |
| Maintaining hospitals for KITES and curs. |
1812. From an old Dublin Jester. [The story, however, with slight variations is told of other judges. See Notes and Queries, 6 S., ix. 326, 394]. In a case before the Lord Chancellor of Ireland Mr. Curran, on behalf of the suitor, prayed to be relieved from the payment of some bills for which he had not received consideration, but only lent his name as an accommodation. Mr. Curran, in the course of his pleadings, mentioned the terms KITE and RAISING THE WIND several times, when his lordship requested to know the meaning of the words. ‘My lord’, Mr. Curran replied, ‘in your country (meaning England), the wind generally raises the KITE, but with us,’ significantly looking at the gentlemen of the bar, ‘the KITE raises the wind.’
2. (commercial).—An accommodation bill; fictitious commercial paper; (in Scotland) a WINDMILL-BILL (q.v.). See KITE-FLYING. TO FLY A KITE = to raise money or keep up credit by the aforesaid means.
1817. EDGEWORTH, Love and Law, i. 2. Here’s bills plenty—long bills and short bills—but even the KITES, which I can fly as well as any man, won’t raise the money for me now.
1823. BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Dictionary of the Turf, etc., s.v. KITE-FLYING. In Ireland FLYING THE KITE is employed to describe raising the wind.
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends (The Merchant of Venice).
| In English Exchequer-bills full half a million, | |
| Not ‘KITES,’ manufactured to cheat and inveigle, | |
| But the right sort of ‘flimsy,’ all sign’d by Monteagle. |
1848. Punch, xiv. 226. He never does a little discounting, nor lends his hand to FLYING A KITE.
1834. ASA GREENE, The Perils of Pearl Street, 82. FLYING THE KITE is rather a perilous adventure.
1880. G. R. SIMS, Ballads of Babylon (Little Worries).
| You have a KITE you cannot FLY, | |
| And creditors are pressing. |
1883. GRENVILLE MURRAY, People I Have Met, p. 158. His wife, one of the better of the best society, had flown KITES to the height of twenty-five thousand pounds.
1891. Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 23 Jan. … has been, FLYING KITES and getting into trouble thereby.
3. (American).—Fancy stocks.—MATSELL (1859).
4. (American thieves’).—A letter.—MATSELL (1859).
5. (American thieves’).—The chief of a gang of thieves.
6. (old).—A recruiting sergeant. [From Farquhar’s Sergeant Kite in The Recruiting Officer.]
1827. REYNOLDS (‘Peter Corcoran’), The Fancy, ‘The Field of Tothill.’
| She was adored by … sober sergeants; privates too in drink, | |
| While pamper’d by those red KITES their recruiters. |
7. (old Scots’).—The belly.
d. 1554. LYNDSAY, Kitteis Confessioun, Wks. (1879), i. 138, line 140. Thocht Codrus KYTE suld cleve and birst.
d. 1607. MONTGOMERIE, Works, ‘Polwart and Montgomerie’s Flyting’ (1886–7), 85, line 754. Misly KYT! And thou flyt, Ile dryt in thy gob.
1722–30. RAMSAY, Fables and Tales, ‘The Monk and the Miller’s Wife,’ in Wks. (1851), iii. 166. Whase KYTES can streek out like raw plaiding!
Verb. (commercial).—1. To keep up one’s credit by means of accommodation bills; to obtain money by bills. See subs. sense 2.
2. (American).—To speculate wildly.
3. (American).—To be restless, going from place to place; to SKITE (q.v.).—MATSELL (1859).
TO FLY A KITE.—1. see KITE, subs. sense 2.
2. (general).—To put out a feeler before a definite announcement.
