You searched for: “kid
kid (adjective) (no comparatives)
Relating to a younger person than another member of a family: Sam's kid brother will be graduating from high school this year.

Gertrud's kid sister will be having her birthday party this week and her kid brother will have his celebration next month.

This entry is located in the following unit: English Words in Action, Group K (page 1)
kid (s) (noun), kids (pl)
1. A child or a young person: Karen took her kids to the park to go for a walk.
2. Young goats: On the farm, Jim saw several mother goats with their kids.

There are those who object to the use of the term kid or kids for youngsters and say: "Kids are young goats and so children should NOT be referred to as kids; unless they behave like young goats!"

3. Etymology: from Middle English kide and from Old Norse kidh, "a young goat" or a similar animal; such as "an antelope"; then, the informal slang-term came into existence for "a child" or "a young person" to be called kids.

Kids Say the Funniest Things

There are elementary school teachers who apparently agree with that title, because they keep journals of amusing things their students have written in papers as shown in the following list:

  • The future tense of "I give" is "I take".
  • The parts of speech are lungs and air.
  • A census taker is man who goes from house to house increasing the population.
  • Water is composed of two gins. Oxygin and hydrogin. Oxygin is pure gin. Hydrogin is gin and water.
  • The definitions of H2O and CO2: H2O is hot water and CO2 is cold water.
  • Most of the houses in France are made of plaster of Paris.
  • The spinal column is a long bunch of bones where the head sits on the top and you sit on the bottom.
  • We do not raise silk worms in the United States, because we get our silk from rayon who is a larger worm and gives more silk.
  • One of the main causes of dust is janitors.
  • One by-product of raising cattle is calves.
  • The four seasons are salt, pepper, mustard, and vinegar.
  • The word trousers is an uncommon noun because it is singular at the top and plural at the bottom.
  • Syntax is all the money collected at a church from sinners.
  • The blood circulates through the body by flowing down one leg and up the other.
  • Iron was discovered because someone smelt it.
  • The law of gravity says no fair jumping up without coming back down.
  • A vibration is a motion that can't make up it's mind which way it wants to go.
  • I'm not sure how clouds are formed, but clouds know how to do it, and that's the important part.
  • Water vapor gets together in a cloud, then when it gets big enough to drop, it does.
  • Rain is saved up in cloud banks.
—Compiled from excerpts that were presented on
the radio program, "Car Talk" by Prissy Lee, 2004.
This entry is located in the following unit: English Words in Action, Group K (page 1)
kid (verb), kids; kidded; kidding
To say something as a joke; including making someone believe that which is not true: Jack thought Shirley was kidding him when she said she would marry him.

Jack responded by saying, "Are you trying to kid me?"

Shirley answered, "Jack, I kid you not; let's do it. No, I'm only kidding you!"

This entry is located in the following unit: English Words in Action, Group K (page 1)