kite

nom

1. 1

   A bird of prey of the family Accipitridae.

   A pair of kites built a nest on the cliff.

   And yet the ſillie kight, well weyde in each degree, May ſerue ſometimes (as in his kinde) for mans commoditie. The kight can weede the worme from corne and coſtly ſeedes, The kight cã kill the mowldiwarpe, in pleaſant meads yͭ breeds: Out of the ſtately ſtreetes the kight can clenſe the filth, As mẽ can clẽſe the worthleſſe weedes frõ fruteful fallow tilth; […]

   Monſieur de Sanſſac was appointed to attend vpon him [Francis I of France] with all ſorts of Haukes, wherein the ſaide Emperour ſemed to take great delight, eſpecially with flying at the Kight, which the French call Voler le Milan, […]

   Kites flying aloft, ſhew Faire and Drie Weather. […] the Kite affecteth not ſo much the Groſſneſſe of the Aire, as the Cold and Freſhneſſe thereof; For being a Bird of Prey, and therefore Hot, ſhee delighteth in the Fresh Aire; And (many times) flyeth againſt the Wind, […]

2. 2

   A bird of prey of the family Accipitridae. Any bird of the subfamily Milvinae, with long wings and weak legs, feeding mostly on carrion and spending long periods soaring; specifically, the red kite (Milvus milvus) and the black kite (Milvus migrans).

   The milvus, or kite, is a native of Europe, Asia, and Africa. […] Its motion in the air distinguishes it from all other birds, being so smooth and even that it is scarcely perceptible.

   In Hindu erotic literature, to consummate sexual supremacy, a prescription often in use requires a mixture of honey and cowach, the prickly hairs of a tropical pod, along with the remains of a dead kite, in pulverized form.

3. 3

   A bird of prey of the family Accipitridae. A bird of the genus Elanus, having thin pointed wings, that preys on rodents and hunts by hovering; also, any bird of related genera in the subfamily Elaninae.

   The ‘white-tailed’ kites in the genus Elanus (‘kite’) are small, gull-like, grey-and-white hawks with black forewing patches and varying amounts of black on the underwings.

4. 4

   A bird of prey of the family Accipitridae. Some species in the subfamily Perninae.

   The swallow-tailed kite of the New World (Elanoides forficatus) is a striking black and white bird of the subfamily Perninae. It is about 60 cm (24 inches) long, including its long forked tail. It is most common in tropical eastern South America but also occurs from Central America to the United States.

5. 5

   figuréA rapacious person.

   deteſted kite, thou li[e]ſt[.] [M]y traine, and^([sic – meaning are]) men of choiſe and rareſt parts, that all particulars of dutie knowe, and in the moſt exact regard, ſupport the worſhip of their name, [...]

6. 6

   A lightweight toy or other device, traditionally flat and shaped like a triangle with a segment of a circle attached to its base or like a quadrilateral (see sense 9), carried on the wind and tethered and controlled from the ground by one or more lines.

   On windy spring days, we would fly kites.

   What for do ye want to get baker's bread, aunt? This dough will rise as high as a kite in the south wind.

   Housing a Dirigible […] When the ship is kept head on to the wind, it is easy enough to guide her, but when a wind blows across the mouth of the shed, every man's heart is in its throat. The ship offers so much more surface sidewise than endwise that she becomes an enormous kite.

7. 7

   A tethered object which deflects its position in a medium by obtaining lift and drag in reaction with its relative motion in the medium.

   The purpose of the water kite is to float beneath or beside the ship at a depth sufficient to insure safety.

8. 8

   A planetary configuration wherein one planet of a grand trine is in opposition to an additional fourth planet.

   Frequently a kite formation is created by one of the planets in the trine by its opposition to another planet, which allows expulsion and redirection of the pent-up energy associated with a closed circuit.

9. 9

   argotA blank cheque; a fraudulent cheque, such as one issued even though there are insufficient funds to honour it, or one that has been altered without authorization.

   But she said, "if this was a kite, he didn't realize that you don't have the float time of the old days," which made check-kiting easier.

10. 10

    argotAn accommodation bill (“a bill of exchange endorsed by a reputable third party acting as a guarantor, as a favour and without compensation”).

    The advantages which are alleged to belong to the district system [of banking] are the following:— […] as each bank will have an agent in London, the bills they draw will thus have two parties as securities, and the public will have a pledge that there is no excessive issue in the form of kites or accommodation bills.

11. 11

    argotA rider who is good at climbs but less good at descents.

12. 12

    A polygon resembling the shape of a traditional toy kite (sense 3): a quadrilateral having two pairs of edges of equal length, the edges of each pair touching each other at one end.

    Meronyms: angle, side; see also Thesaurus:polygon

    A kite is a quadrilateral with exactly two pairs of adjacent congruent sides. Note that a parallelogram has opposite congruent sides, whereas the congruent sides of kites are adjacent. Therefore, a kite is also a parallelogram only when both pairs of adjacent congruent sides of the kite are congruent to each other, making the kite a rhombus.

13. 13

    argotAn aeroplane or aircraft.

    And did you know the Chiefie said that one of our kites went in the drink last night?

    This time, the engine roared and the kite rocked against the brakes then sluggishly rolled down the strip.

14. 14

    vieilliIn a square-rigged ship: originally a sail positioned above a topsail; later a lightweight sail set above the topgallants, such as a studding sail or a jib topsail.

    Our good master keeps his kites up to the last moment, studding-sails alow and aloft, and, by incessant straight steering, never loses a rod of way.

15. 15

    argotA spinnaker (“supplementary sail to a mainsail”).

    The key to a good gybe is to bring the spinnaker round to the old weather side before you begin, and then to steer to keep some wind in the kite.

16. 16

    The brill (Scophthalmus rhombus), a type of flatfish.

    Brill (Scophthalmus rhombus) Also known as kite or pearl. Brill reaches a maximum length of 75cm (29½in). It lives in the Eastern Atlantic, from Iceland to Morocco, throughout the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.

17. 17

    argotA (usually concealed) letter or oral message, especially one passed illegally into, within, or out of a prison.

    Officers must maintain control by making sure their inmate count is correct, by checking inmates' passes as they walk the hall […] This helps prevent the occasional juggling of goods, gang communication, such as kites (a written request from one inmate to another), and inmate assaults, such as face cuts or stabbings.

verbe

1. 1

   To cause (something) to move upwards rapidly like a toy kite; also (chiefly US, figuratively) to cause (something, such as costs) to increase rapidly.

   Rising interest rates have kited the cost of housing.

   Lombard swung at the sweet pea he had dropped, caught it neatly with the toe of his shoe, and kited it upward with grim zest, as though doing that made him feel a lot better.

   Today, the Bangs auction house would have been rubbing its hands with unconcealed glee and kiting the price of the manuscript into the stratosphere. In 1877, no bidding took place. Bangs merely announced that the letter had been sold for $13.

2. 2

   argotTo tamper with a document or record by increasing the quantity of something beyond its proper amount so that the difference may be unlawfully retained; in particular, to alter a medical prescription for this purpose by increasing the number of pills or other items.

   A pharmacist "kited" and "shorted" a significant percentage of prescriptions. "Kiting" refers to the pharmacist's forging upward the number of pills originally prescribed by the physician, charging Medicaid for the increased amount but providing the patient with the originally prescribed quantity.

   Pharmacists have kited Medicaid prescriptions by raising the number of pills called for on a prescription blank from, say, 100 to 200, and billing Medicaid for the larger amount.

   Sir, I have a lead that the sergeants in charge at the down town airmen's club have been kiting the winnings on the slot machines. […] Some of them will give the kid his $10.00 winnings, have him sign for it in the ledger. After the kid walks away he/they add a zero to make it look like the kid won a $100 instead of the ten. Then they pocket the $90.00.

3. 3

   To keep ahead of (an enemy) and repeatedly attack it from a distance, without exposing oneself to danger.

4. 4

   To attack (an enemy) or otherwise cause it to give chase, so as to lead it somewhere (like a kite is led on a string), for example into a trap or ambush or away from its comrades or something it was protecting.

   I hate it when my knight is kited away from the castle that I'm attacking!

5. 5

   To (cause to) glide in the manner of a kite (“bird”).

   If you're pulling or kiting a creature and it aggros an innocent passer-by, it's your fault and you should apologize.

   The wind kited us toward shore.

   It was mere happenstance that the Weston meteor kited across the sky on December 14, 1807, the same day President [Thomas] Jefferson's Non-Importation Act, which restricted trade with Great Britain and France during the Napoleonic Wars, went into effect.

   In the distance creatures on leathery wings kited across the sky, lofted by thermal winds.

6. 6

   rareTo manipulate like a toy kite; also, usually preceded by an inflection of go: to fly a toy kite.

   Want to go kite with me this weekend?

   Finally, if you have no one to fly a kite with, you can kite alone.

   Only during the brief time of experimentation with flight that preceded the invention of the airplane, when kites fired the western imagination with visions of human flight, did kiting become significant.

   Then there was the motorized paraglider. I was actually lucky on this one—I had a full four days to practice on it. However, I was also dealing with a 10-pound (4.5 kg) motor on my back and a huge parachute that I had to learn to kite behind me.

7. 7

   argotTo write or present (a cheque) on an account with insufficient funds, either to defraud or expecting that funds will become available by the time the cheque clears.

   He was convicted of kiting checks and sentenced to two years in prison.

   “An affair of honour!” said O’Flaherty, squaring himself. He smelt powder in everything. “More like an affair of dishonour,” said Toole, buttoning his coat. “He’s been ‘kiting’ all over the town. Nutter can distrain for his rent to-morrow, and Cluffe called him outside the bar to speak with him; put that and that together, sir.”

   The fame and money brought in by Only in America meant no more name changes, no need to kite checks, and no sneaking past the landlord.

8. 8

   argotTo steal.

   Andy also kept a box of that [steel wool] in his cell, although he didn't get it from me—I imagine he kited it from the prison laundry.

   Little bastards were always trying to kite stuff, particularly the candy and the girly magazines.

9. 9

   To travel by kite, as when kitesurfing.

   We spent the afternoon kiting around the bay.

   If we kited again, it would be very dangerous with the steep slope and the heavy weight crashing on behind us and, in any event, Pat and Dave's kites were ridiculously tangled.

   A rare north wind and conditions of good visibility allowed me to try my luck at kiting again. Without stopping for chocolate and taking quick gulps of energy orange from my Thermos, I kited 117 miles in one day.

10. 10

    figuréTo move rapidly; to rush.

    They commenced whipping their horses at the base, and, as one of the prisoners expressed it, "they went kiting up the hill, and for nearly a mile after the summit had been gained."

    Q. The supervisor of a particular district would go around in his carriage. […] They went kiting around for a couple of weeks? A. Yes, sir; for four weeks prior to election. Q. Were the carriages necessary? A. I didn't see any necessity for them.

    […] the big boy stuck his foot out so she fell. Nursie saw and started for her, but she scrambled up and went kiting for the bench, and climbed on it, […]

11. 11

    To deflect sideways in the water.

    This column action causes the tow line to kite either to the port or the starboard side, […]

12. 12

    argotTo pass a (usually concealed) letter or oral message, especially illegally, into, within, or out of a prison.

    Prison Hall in Central Hospital was claimed by some patients to be "organized" in the more extensive manner of prisons for the sane. Here, it was claimed, an attendant could be bribed to "kite" a letter or bring in contraband, […]

    I have been working like a dam mule this morning and just found time to kite you.

nom

1. 1

   The stomach; the belly.

   "You know my father's name?" "It would be strange if I didnae," he returned, "for he was my born brother; and little as ye seem to like either me or my house, or my good parritch, I'm your born uncle, Davie, my man, and you my born nephew. So give us the letter, and sit down and fill your kyte."

   Don't live like vegetarians On food they give to parrots, Blow out your kite, from morn 'til night, On boiled beef and carrots.

nom

1. 1

   A measure of weight equivalent to ¹⁄₁₀ deben (about 0.32 ounces or 9.1 grams).

   […] in the great Harris papyrus, […] precise quantities are recorded by weight in terms of the deben (about 2½ oz.) and the qite (¼ oz.) of gold, silver, copper and precious stones, without any reference to their value. […] Five pots of honey were bought for five qite of silver and an ox for five qite of gold.

   [I]t was found necessary to employ media of exchange, and emmer wheat and silver were both used for this purpose. The latter was particularly favoured, but it was normally treated by weight, being measured in kite (9.53 g) and deben (10 kite) in purely Egyptian contexts, though foreigners such as the Jewish mercenaries at Elephantine could use their own metrological systems.

   The scribe of the temple Sedy set out with the pure priest and goldsmith Tuty for the frames; they removed one deben and three and a half qite of gold, which they took for the chief of the gang Pameniu.

   In the Saite and Persian Periods, Abnormal Hieratic and Demotic texts usually measure value as weights of silver. […] The weights of silver are almost always either the deben of 91 grams, or the kite of 9.1 grams. In the Persian Period, Demotic texts sometimes also refer to staters equated to two kite, or five to the deben.

Formes

pluriel

kites

passé

kited

participe passé

kited

participe présent

kiting

3ᵉ personne du singulier

kites