Kick

v. t. [imp. & p. p. KICKED (kĭkt); p. pr. & vb. n. KICKING.] [W. ciciau, to hit with the foot, from cic, foot.] To strike, thrust, or hit violently with the foot; as, a horse kicks a servant; a man kicks a dog.

To kick the beam, to fly up and strike the beam; — said of the lighter arm of a loaded balance; hence, to be found wanting in weight. Milton. — To kick the bucket, to lose one's life; to decease; to die. [Colloq. and low.]

☞ The allusion is to the way in which a slaughtered pig is hung up, viz., by passing the ends of a bent piece of wood behind the tendons of the hind legs, and so suspending it to a hook in the beam above. This piece of wood is locally termed a bucket, and so, by a coarse metaphor, the phrase came to signify to die. E. S. Taylor.

n. 1. A blow with the foot or feet; a striking or thrust of the foot.

A kick that scarce would move a horse, May kill a sound divine. Cooper.

2Sense 2. The projection on the tang of a pocket-knife blade, which prevents the edge of the blade from striking the spring. [See Illust. of Pocket-knife.]

3Sense 3. The recoil of a musket or other fire-arm, when discharged.