[f. prec. sb.]
1. intr. To fly, soar, or move through the air, with a gliding motion like that of a kite; also, fig. of a person. colloq.
1863. Le Fanu, Ho. by Churchyard, II. 66. He has been ‘kiting’ all over the town.
1894. J. J. Astor, Journ. other Worlds, II. iii. 145–6. Whenever a large mass seemed dangerously near the glass, they … sent it kiting among its fellows.
b. trans. To cause to fly high like a paper kite.
1865. E. Burritt, Walk to Land’s End, 378–9. We pulled in our kited fancies soaring so high.
1868. Bushnell, Serm. Liv. Subj., 62. We are going … to be kited or aerially floated no more.
2. To terrify grouse or partridges by flying a paper kite, shaped like a hawk, over their haunts, so as to make them lie close till the guns come near.
1880. Daily News, 1 Sept., 5/2. The practices known as driving and kiting.
3. Commercial slang. a. intr. To ‘fly a kite’: see KITE sb. 4. b. trans. To convert into a ‘kite’ or accommodation bill.
1864. Webster, Kite, v. i. (Literally, to fly a kite.) To raise money, or sustain one’s credit, by the use of mercantile paper which is fictitious.
1901. Dundee Advertiser, 10 Jan., 6/2. It seemed … as if every one in London who had a sixpence to purchase a stamp had ‘kited’ paper with my signature forged to it.
