Forms: 1 cyta, 4 kete, kijt, kuytte, 4–5 kuyte, 4–7 kyte, (6 kight, -e, kyght, Sc. kyt), 5– kite. [OE. cýta (:—*kūtjon-); no related word appears in the cognate languages.]
1. A bird of prey of the family Falconidæ and subfamily Milvinæ, having long wings, tail usually forked, and no tooth in the bill. a. orig. and esp. the common European species Milvus ictinus (M. regalis, M. vulgaris), also distinctively called Fork-tailed Kite, Royal Kite, or (from its reddish-brown general color) Red Kite, and Glede, formerly common in England, but now very rare.
c. 725. Corpus Gloss., 333. Butio, cyta.
13[?]. K. Alis., 3048. Nultow never late ne skete A goshauk maken of a kete.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 321. Ther cam a kyte, whil they weren so wrothe, And baar awey the boon bitwixe hem bothe.
c. 1450. Bk. Hawkyng, in Rel. Ant., I. 298. Draw hym oute of the mewe and put him in a grove, in a crowys neste, other in a kuytes.
1539. Tonstall, Serm. Palm Sund. (1823), 74. Their carkases there to lye to be deuoured by kytes & crowes.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., III. i. 249. Wer’t not all one, an emptie Eagle were set, To guard the Chicken from a hungry Kyte.
1663. Cowley, Verses & Ess., Ode Liberty, vi. To kites and meaner Birds he leaves the mangled Prey.
1766. Pennant, Zool. (1768), I. 141. The kite generally breeds in large forests, or wooded mountainous countries.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xix. Her ear for bad news was as sharp as a kite’s scent for carrion.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., II. III. 301. With wide wing The fork-tailed restless kite sailed over her, Hushing the twitter of the linnets near.
b. Applied with qualifying words to other species of the genus, or of the subfamily Milvinæ.
Arabian K., Milvus ægyptiacus; Australian or Square-tailed K., M. isurus (Lophoictinia isura); Black K., M. ater of southern Europe and northern Africa; Black-winged K., Elanus cæruleus of northern Africa; Brahminy K., Haliastur indus of Hindustan; Indian or Pariah K., Milvus govinda; Mississippi K., Ictinia mississippiensis; Pearl or White-tailed K., Elanus leucurus of N. America; Swallow-tailed K., Elanoides forficatus of N. America.
Also locally applied (or misapplied), with or without qualification, to birds belonging to other divisions of Falconidæ, as the Buzzard (Bald K.), Hen-harrier, and Kestrel.
1611. Cotgr., Buzart, a Buzzard, or Bald-kite.
c. 1813. [see BRAHMINEE a.].
1843. Yarrell, Brit. Birds, I. 72. The Swallow-tailed Kite … is only an occasional visitor to this country.
1847. Leichhardt, Jrnl., x. 321. We had to guard it by turns … from a host of square-tailed kites (Milvus isurus).
1893. Newton, Dict. Birds, 491. There is a second European species … the Milvus migrans or M. ater of most authors, smaller in size…. In some districts this is much commoner than the red Kite.
2. fig. A person who preys upon others, a rapacious person; a sharper; also more indefinitely as a term of reproach or detestation.
a. 1553. Udall, Royster D., V. v. (Arb.), 83. Roister Doister that doughtie kite.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., II. i. 80. Fetch forth the Lazar Kite of Cressids kinde, Doll Teare-sheete. Ibid. (1605), Lear, I. iv. 284. Detested Kite, thou lyest. Ibid. (1606), Ant. & Cl., III. xiii. 89. Ah you Kite.
c. 1614. Fletcher, Wit without Money, I. i. Maintaining hospitals for kites and curs.
1841. Carlyle, Misc., Baillie (1872), VI. 235. Food for learned sergeants and the region kites!
3. [From its hovering in the air like the bird.] A toy consisting of a light frame, usually of wood, with paper or other light thin material stretched upon it; mostly in the form of an isosceles triangle with a circular arc as base, or a quadrilateral symmetrical about the longer diagonal; constructed (usually with a tail of some kind for the purpose of balancing it) to be flown in a strong wind by means of a long string attached.
Kites are also used of special shapes, or with special appliances, for various scientific and other purposes, e.g., the bird-kite, used to frighten partridges (see KITE v. 2); cf. also ELECTRIC a. 2 b. quot. 1898 here, and combs. in 9 b.
1664. Butler, Hud., II. III. 161/414. It hapned as a Boy, one night, Did flie his Tarsel of a Kite, The strangest long-wing’d Hauk that flies.
1672. Marvell, Reh. Transp., I. 58. He may make a great Paper-kite of his own Letter of 850 pages.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, etc. I. 129. Boys flying kites, cut square like a diamond.
1827. D. Johnson, Ind. Field Sports, 22. Those who catch birds equip themselves with a frame-work of split bamboos, resembling the frame of a paper kite.
1880. Daily News, 1 Sept., 5/2. The kite has been fiercely attacked as a cowardly device and a mean advantage to take of the birds [partridges].
1898. Westm. Gaz., 8 March, 10/1. Our own War Office have intimated that they are not prepared … to make further trials with kites for military purposes.
fig. 1781. Bell’s Poets, I. Life King, p. xxiii. Some of the political kites which flew about at that time.
b. To fly (or send up) a kite (fig.): to try ‘how the wind blows,’ i.e., in what direction affairs are tending. (See also 4.)
1831. Palmerston, in Sir H. Lytton Bulwer, Life (1871), II. 65. Charles John [King of Sweden] flew a kite at us for the Garter the other day, but without success.
4. Commercial slang. (With jocular allusion to a paper kite, sense 3.) A bill of exchange, or negotiable instrument, not representing any actual transaction, but used for raising money on credit; an, accommodation bill. A person thus raising money is said to fly a kite: see FLY v.1 5 a.
1805. Sporting Mag., XXV. 290. Flying a kite in Ireland is a metaphorical phrase for raising money on accommodation bills.
1817[?]. Mar. Edgeworth, Love & Law, I. i. Here’s bills plinty … but even the kites, which I can fly as well as any man, won’t raise the wind for me now.
1859. Riddles & Jokes, 98. Plunkett … used to say there was this difference between boys’ kites and men’s kites—that with boys the wind raised the kites, but with men the kites raised the wind.
1894. J. C. Jeaffreson, Bk. Recoll., I. v. 84. The wretched piece of paper, with my autograph upon it. But no harm came to me from the little kite.
5. Naut. (pl.) A name for the highest sails of a ship, which are set only in a light wind. Also flying-kites.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, ii. 33. Our good master keeps his kites up to the last moment, studding-sails alow and aloft.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Flying-kites, the very lofty sails, which are only set in fine weather, such as sky-sails, royal studding-sails, and all above them.
1875. Bedford, Sailor’s Pocket Bk., iv. (ed. 2), 90. When the glass falls low, Prepare for a blow; When it rises high, Let all your kites fly.
6. Local name of a fish, the Brill.
1836. Yarrell, Brit. Fishes, II. 241. The Kite of the Devonshire and Cornish coasts is the same as the Brill.
1884. Day, Brit. Fishes, II. 16.
7. Name for a variety of the Almond Tumbler pigeon, having black plumage with the inner webs of the quill-feathers passing into red or yellow.
1867. Tegetmeier, Pigeons, xi. 118. Kites, though seldom regarded as exhibition birds are exceedingly valuable as breeding stock…. An Almond and a Kite will often produce an Almond and a Kite in each nest.
8. Geom. A quadrilateral figure symmetrical about one diagonal (from its resemblance to the form of a toy kite, sense 3); also called DELTOID.
1893. in Funk.
9. attrib. and Comb. a. in sense 1, as kite-and-crow, kite-colo(u)r; -colo(u)red adj.; kite-eagle, name for Neopus (Ictinætus) malayensis, an East Indian hawk; kite-falcon, a hawk of the genus Baza, having a crested head and two teeth in the beak; kite-fish, a species of gurnard; † kite-key (erron. kit-key), a name for the ‘key’ or fruit of the ash-tree; kite-tailed a., having a long tail like that of a kite, as the kite-tailed widgeon, a species of duck (Dafila acuta) found in Florida; † kite-wolf, rendering of Gr. ἰκτῖνος (properly ‘a kite,’ also a kind of wolf). b. in sense 3, as kite expert; kite-flier, -flying (also in sense 4); kite-shaped adj.; kite-balloon, a balloon with a long string or wire attached, used for scientific or other purposes; kite-photograph, a photograph taken by means of a camera attached to a kite or kite-balloon; kite-tail attrib., in kite-tail plug, name for an obstetric dressing made with pledgets of lint or gauze affixed at intervals to a string or tape, like the pieces of paper in the tail of a kite; kite-track (see quot.).
1887. Academy, 7 May, 319/1. *Kite-and-crow struggles of Swabian and Würtemberger.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 8 March, 10/1. The German military authorities are experimenting with *kite-balloons.
1682. Lond. Gaz., No. 1736/4. Stolen or Strayed … two Mares, one of a *Kite-colour. Ibid. (1702), No. 3814/4. A large Sandy or Kite-colour Grey Gelding. Ibid. (1676), No. 1092/4. A *Kite-coloured Roan Nag.
1883. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., III. 283. The *Kite Eagle is about thirty inches in length.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 8 March, 10/1. *Kite experts, who … are building up an art … destined to be of the greatest utility to science and warfare.
1684. Littleton, Lat. Dict., The *Kite-fish, Milvus piscis.
1896. Daily News, 1 Dec., 8/5. Franklin’s experiences as a scientific *kite-flyer were, however, anticipated by a countryman of our own.
1827. D. Johnson, Ind. Field Sports, 168. This extraordinary man spent the whole of his time in … pigeon flying, or paper *kite flying.
1834. Blackw. Mag., XXXVI. 500/2. Some accommodating associate in the noble art and mystery of ‘kite-flying.’
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, VI. lxx. 748. The huskes or fruite thereof [the Ash] are called in shoppes Lingua auis, and Lingua passerina: in English, *Kytekayes.
1620. Venner, Via Recta (1650), 136. Ash-keys, commonly called Kite-keys of the Ash.
1656. Bullokar, Eng. Expos, Kitkaies, the fruit of the ashen tree.
1897. Daily News, 4 Nov., 6/4. One illustration, a view of the City Hall, New York, with a portion of Lower Broadway and adjacent streets, is what is called ‘a *kite photograph.’
1828. Tytler, Hist. Scot. (1864), I. 321/1. The *kite-shaped shield of the Normans.
1896. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., I. 439. For supporting the uterus and packing round the cervix several of these rolls are attached to the one string, forming the *‘kite-tail’ plug.
1893. Outing (U.S.), XXII. 97/2. A *kite track [for racing] consists of two stretches of one-third of a mile each, with a connecting curve of one-third of a mile.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 570. One of them hath a back of a silver colour,… this is Ictinus canus, a gray *Kite-wolf.
