Forms: 4–5 kyt, 4–7 kitt, 5–6 kytt(e, 6– kit. [app. a. MDu. kitte a wooden vessel made of hooped staves (Du. kit tankard): ulterior etymology uncertain.]
1. A circular wooden vessel, made of hooped staves; in different localities applied to vessels of various sizes, with or without a lid, and usually having a handle or handles; as, a small open tub with one or two of the staves fashioned into handles, used for holding water or ‘washing up’; a deeper vessel with a lid used as a milking-pail; a tub- or pail-shaped vessel, often with a lid, used for holding or carrying milk, butter, fish, or other commodities; whence, by extension, sometimes, a square box used for the same purpose.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XVIII. 168. Thai strak his hed of, and syne it Thai haf gert salt in-till a kyt [v.r. kitt] And send it in-till Ingland.
14[?]. Nominale, in Wr.-Wülcker, 696/14. Hoc multrum, a kytt.
1485. Inv., in Ripon Ch. Acts (Surtees), 371. j kitt cum cooperculo.
1565. Inv., in Trans. Cumbld. & Westmld. Arch. Soc., X. 31. In the brew howse A Leade, a mashe fat…. Two Kytts.
1570. Levins, Manip., 148/43. Kit, a litle vessel, cantharus, fidelia.
1633. in Cramond, Ann. Banff (1891), I. 71. Paid for three Kittis of Salmound.
1649. Blithe, Eng. Improv. Impr., ix. (1653), 56. As a man doth with a hand-scoop, pail, or kit, cast water out of a ditch.
1674. Ray, N. C. Words, 27. A Kit or milking Pail … with two Ears and a Cover.
1701. C. Wolley, Jrnl. New York (1860), 55. I … ordered him to fetch a kit full of water and discharge it at them.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl., 3 Sept. The following articles formed our morning’s repast; one kit of boiled eggs; a second, full of butter; a third full of cream.
1795. J. Richardson, in J. Robertson, Agric. Perth (1799), 378. Salmon was … preserved in vinegar, and packed up in small wooden vessels called kits.
1802. Mawe, Min. Derbysh., Gloss. (E. D. S.), Kit, a wood vessel of any size.
1825. Brockett, Kit, properly, a covered milking-pail with two handles, but often applied to a small pail of any sort.
1832–53. Whistle-Binkie, Ser. III. 114. We’ve kits fu’ o’ butter—we’ve cogs fu’ o’ brose.
1878. Cumbld. Gloss., Butter kits, square boxes used for conveying butter to market in a wallet on horseback.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 72. Samples of Red Herrings in kits.
1888. Sheffield Gloss., Kit or Kitty,… a wooden tub with one handle, in which … grinders cool their knives, saws, etc.
b. A kind of basket, esp. one made of straw or rushes for holding fish.
1847–78. in Halliwell.
1859. Sala, Tw. round Clock (1861), 20. Crabs are sold by the ‘kit’ (a long shallow basket) and by the score.
2. a. A collection of articles (called articles of kit) forming part of the equipment of a soldier, and carried in a valise or knapsack; also, the valise containing these, or this with its contents; sometimes = outfit, ‘turn-out,’ uniform.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. T., s.v., The kit is likewise the whole of a soldier’s necessaries, the contents of his knapsack.
1813. Sir R. Wilson, Priv. Diary, II. 18. Considering that we were conspicuous à cheval, and in glittering kits, it is wonderful that no marksman fired with unerring aim.
1820. J. W. Croker, in C. Papers, 16 June (1884). Several [soldiers] … removed their kits from the barracks.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, xxvi. His kit is as simple as a subaltern’s.
1868. Regul. & Ord. Army, ¶ 602 c, The Articles of Kit to be worn and carried in the different orders.
1870. Illustr. Lond. News, 29 Oct., 446. They came without muskets or kits, but the officers had their swords.
b. A collection of personal effects or necessaries, esp. as packed up for travelling.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, xiv. I hardly need say that my lord’s kit was valuable; and what was better, they exactly fitted me.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, I. xvi. 160. The widow and Laura … set about the preparation for Pen’s kit, and filled trunks with his books and linen.
1862. F. Hall, Hindu Philos. Syst., 107. He thereupon dressed, tied up his kit, and set off.
1866–7. Livingstone, Last Jrnls. (1873), I. v. 111. I sent a man to carry his kit for him.
c. The outfit of tools required by a workman, esp. a shoemaker.
[1825. Brockett, Kit,… the stool on which a cobbler works.]
1851. S. Judd, Margaret, I. iii. (1871), 11. The workshop … contained a loom, a kit where the father of Margaret sometimes made shoes, [etc.].
1858. M. Porteous, Souter Johnny, 10. The Souter … Liv’d wi’ his kit, And made gude shoon.
1881. Pharmaceut. Jrnl., 165. The kit of tools for a nipple maker consists of a small slanting case [etc.].
1885. H. M. Newhall, in Harper’s Mag., Jan., 282/2. The laster is about the only shoemaker left who can still talk fondly of his ‘kit.’
3. colloq. A number of things or persons viewed as a whole; a set, lot, collection; esp. in phr. the whole kit.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. T., Kit,… is also used to express the whole of different commodities; as, Here, take the whole kit; i. e. take all.
1788. R. Galloway, Poems, 170 (Jam.). ’Twas whiskey made them a’ sae crouse;… But now I wad na gi’e ae louse For a’ the kit.
1821. Shelley, Œdipus Tyr., I. 92. I’ll sell you in a lump The whole kit of them.
1861. Dickens, Gt. Expect., xl. A better gentleman than the whole kit on you put together.
4. attrib. and Comb. a. (sense 1) kit-dressing (see quot.); kit-haddock, an inferior sort of haddock, sent away in kits for curing; kit-trade, the trade of putting up fish in kits for the market. b. (sense 2) kit inspection; kit-bag, a stout bag in which to carry a soldier’s or traveller’s kit; kit-drill (see quot.).
a. 1831. Glover’s Hist. Derby, I. 261. The rural festival of *kit dressing took place on the 4th of August 1829…. Twigs of willow were bent over the tops of the kits…. The maidens carried the kits on their heads.
1894. B’ham Daily Post, 18 May, 6/6. *Kit haddocks, 10s. to 13s. per box.
1866. Mitchell, Hist. Montrose, xvi. 136. The Berwick-on-Tweed companies … commenced the boiling and *kit-trade.
b. 1890. A. V. Palmer, in 19th Cent., Nov., 849. The man condemned to kit drill marches up and down the barrack square for two hours a day carrying his entire kit in his valise, including boots, his sword, carbine, and cloak.
1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 14 Dec., 5/1. Sixteen men … absented themselves in a body from a kit inspection.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 7 April, 4/1. I looked at the marching boots … and wished they were in my kit-bag along with the wonderful assortment of articles … technically described as ‘small kit.’ Ibid. (1899), 25 Sept., 3/1. An exceedingly handy form of knapsack or kit-bag that I bought … in Germany for the modest sum of 1s. 9d.
