Also 8 kesh. [a. Ir. cis, ceis basket, hamper: cf. KISHEN.] A large wickerwork basket, used in Ireland chiefly for carrying turf; sometimes mounted on a car.
1780. A. Young, Tour Irel., I. 61. A kish of turf burns 2 barrels of lime.
1802. Edgeworth, Irish Bulls, x. (1803), 180. An Irish boy … saw a train of his companions leading their cars loaded with kishes of turf.
1841. S. C. Hall, Ireland, II. 125, note. He pointed to the potatoe Kish which was placed upon the table.
1842. S. Lover, Handy Andy, xix. 162. The cars were in great variety: some bore kishes, in which a woman and some children might be seen.
b. Used, like gabions, in building the piers of bridges, etc. (see quot.). Hence Kish-work.
1776. G. Semple, Building in Water, 59. Kesh-work, that is, a kind of large Baskets, made of the Boughs and Branches of Trees, about the size of four or five Feet Square; these they sink in rows, by throwing stones … into them till they ground, and then filling them up. Ibid., 60. They … so begin to build their Piers, banking the Kishes all round with other Stones and hard Stuff thrown in.
