Chapter Key to Kick Up a Row of K by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

The governor and his council consists of the governor, the bishop, the attorney-general, two deemsters (or judges), the clerk of the rolls, the water bailiff, the archdeacon, and the vicar-general.
   The House of Keys. The board of landed proprietors referred to above, or the house in which they hold their sessions.

Keyne (St.). The well of St. Keyne, Cornwall, has a strange superstition attached to it, which is this: “If the bridegroom drinks therefrom before the bride, he will be master of his house; but if the bride gets the first draught, the grey mare will be the better horse.” Southey has a ballad on this tradition, and says the man left his wife at the church porch, and ran to the well to get the first draught; but when he returned his wife told him his labour had been in vain, for she had taken with her a “bottle of the water to church.”

Khedive d'Egypte An old regal title revived by the sultan in 1867, who granted it to Ismael I., who succeeded as Pasha of Egypt in 1863. The title is higher than viceroy, but not so high as sultan. (Turkish, khidiv; Persian, khidiw, viceroy.) Pronounce ke-dive, in 2 syl.

Khorassan [Region of the Sun ]. A province of Persia, anciently called Ariana.
   The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan. Mokanna, a prophet chief, who, being terribly deformed, wore a veil under pretence of shading the dazzling light of his countenance.

“Terror seized her lest the love-light which encircled him should fade away, and leave him like the veiled prophet of Khorassan, a sinstained thing of clay”- Lady Hardy: A Casual Acquaintance.

Ki A Chinese word, signifying age or period, generally applied to the ten periods preceding the first Imperial dynasty, founded B.C. 2205. It extended over some 300,000 years. The first was founded by Puon-ku (highest eternity), and the last by Of-hi, surnamed Tien-Tse (son of heaven).

Kiak-Kiak (god of gods). An idol worshipped in Pegu. This god is to sleep 6,000 years, and when he wakes the end of the world will come.

Kick (A). Sixpence. “Two-and-a-kick” = two shillings and sixpence. (Anglo-Saxon, cicel, a bit. In Jamaica a “bit” = sixpence, and generally it means the smallest silver coin in circulation; thus, in America, a “bit” is fourpence. We speak of a “threepenny bit.”)
   “It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks” (Acts ix. 5; and xxvi. 14.) The proverb occurs in Pindar (2 Pythian Victories, v. 173), in Æschylos; (Agamemnon, 1,624), in Euripde (Bacchæ, 791), in Terence (Phormio, i. ii. 27), in Ovid (Tristia, book ii. 15), etc.; but whether the reference is to an ox kicking when goaded, or a horse when pricked with the rowels of a spur, is not certain. The plural kentra seems to refer to more than one, and pros kentra cannot refer to a repetition of goad thrusts. Altogether, the rowels of a spur suit the phrase better than the single point of an ox-goad.
   N.B. The Greek pros with an accusative is not = the Latin adversus, such a meaning would require a genitive case; it means in answer to, i.e. to kick when spurred or goaded.
   More kicks than ha'pence. More abuse than profit. Called “monkey's allowance” in allusion to monkeys led about to collect ha'pence by exhibiting “their parts.” The poor brutes get the kicks if they do their parts in an unsatisfactory manner, but the master gets the ha'pence collected.
   Quite the kick. Quite a dandy. The Italians call a dandy a chic. The French chic means knack, as avoir le chic, to have the knack of doing a thing smartly.

“I cocked my bat and twirled my stick,
And the girls they called me quite the kick.”
George Colman the Younger.

Kick Over the Traces (To). Not to follow the dicta of a party leader, but to act independently; as a horse refusing to run in harness kicks over the traces.

“If the new member shows any inclination to kick over the traces, he will not be their member long.”- Newspaper paragraph, Feb., 1893.

Kick the Beam (To). To be of light weight; to be of inferior consequence. When one pan of a pair of scales is lighter than the other, it flies upwards and is said to “kick the beam” [of the scales].

“The evil has eclipsed the good, and the scale, which before rested solidly on the ground, now kicks the beam.”- Gladstone.

Kick the Bucket (To). A bucket is a pulley, and in Norfolk a beam. When pigs are