Kirsome, Christian; ‘As I’m true Kirsome woman’, Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, iv. 7. 5. See [cursen].
kite, a term of detestation. Fletcher, Wit without Money, i. 1. 16; iii. 4. 16; Hen. V, ii. 1. 80; King Lear, i. 4. 284; Ant. and Cl. iii. 13. 89; Udall, Roister Doister (ed. Arber, 83).
kiss the post, to be shut out of a house in consequence of arriving too late (there being nothing else to kiss but the doorpost); ‘Make haste, thou art best, for fear thou kiss the post’, Heywood, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs), vol. i, p. 47.
kix, a ‘kex’, dried-up stalk; a term of abuse. Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, i. 2 (Mercury).
knacker, a harness-maker. Tusser, Husbandry, § 58. 5. In Lancashire knacker is a term for a tanner (EDD.).
knap, a knave, a rogue. Spelt knappe, Gascoigne, Supposes, ii. 1 (Dulipo); Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3. 80. ‘A regular knap’, ‘a deead knap’ are Yorkshire expressions for a cunning knave, see EDD. (s.v. Knap, sb.2 1).
knap, a small hill, a mound, knoll. Bacon, Essay 45; a hill-top, Golding, Metam. xi. 339 (L. ‘vertice’). In prov. use in Scotland, and in various parts of England (EDD.). OE. cnæpp, top, hill-top (Luke iv. 29).
knap, to knock, rap, strike smartly; to sound or toll a bell. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3. 80; also, to knock together, Bacon, Sylva, § 133.
knare, knar, a knot or protuberance on a tree; ‘Woods with knots and knares deformed’, Dryden, Palamon, iii. 536; spelt gnarre, Cockeram’s Dict. (1623). See EDD. (s.v. Gnarr, sb.1 1). Cp. ME. knarry, gnarled (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1977). Low G. knarre; Du. knar; see NED.
kned, pp. kneaded. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, i. 1 (Savourwit). In prov. use in the north, and in E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Knead, 3).