Also kee-kee. [Maori.] A New Zealand climbing plant, Freycinetia Banksii (N.O. Pandanaceæ), the leaves of which are woven into baskets, etc. Also attrib.
1854. Golder, Pigeon’s Parlt., Notes 77. The trees were … covered with a kind of parasite plant, called a keekee, having a thick cabbage-like stock.
1873. Buller, Birds New Zeal. (1888), II. 317. I drew out the nest materials, consisting of shreds of kiekie-leaves and other dry litter.
1882. T. H. Potts, Out in the Open, 20 (Morris). The unused food … together with the empty kie-kie baskets.
