Cant. Also 6 (kitchin), kynchen, -ching, 7 -chin, 9 kinchen. [The form of the word and the history of some other early words of the same class suggest that it was a corrupt form of G. kindchen or MLG. kindekin, MDu. kindeken, LG. kindken, little child.]
1. † a. attrib. in kinchin-co(ve), -mort, the terms used by 16th-c. tramps to denote respectively a boy and girl belonging to their community. Obs. b. absol. A child, a ‘kid.’ (Now convicts’ slang.)
1561. Awdelay, Frat. Vacab., 5. A Kitchin Co is called an ydle runagate Boy.
1567. Harman, Caveat, xxii. 76. A Kynching Morte is a lytle Gyrle: the Mortes their mothers carries them at their backes in their slates, whiche is their shetes.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Kinchin, a little Child. Kinchin-cove, a little Man.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xxviii. I’ll pray for nane o’ him, said Meg … The times are sair altered since I was a kinchen-mort.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, xlii. The kinchins … is the young children that’s sent on errands by their mothers.
1897. P. Warung, Tales Old Regime, 231. There yer are now, making the woman snivel, and you have frightened her kinchins too.
2. attrib. in kinchin-lay, the practice of stealing money from children sent on errands. Also fig.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, xlii. ‘Ain’t there any other line open?’ ‘Stop,’ said the Jew … ‘The kinchin lay.’
1888. Academy, 29 Sept., 203/1. ‘The detective business,’ which is, at the best, the kinchin lay of fiction.
