1. KITE, N.
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1. A bird of prey of the family Falconidæ and subfamily Milvinæ,
having long wings, tail usually forked, and no tooth in the bill.    a.
orig. and esp. the common European species Milvus ictinus (M. regalis,
M. vulgaris), also distinctively called fork-tailed kite, royal kite, or
(from its reddish-brown general colour) red kite, and glede, formerly
common in England, but now very rare.

    b. Applied with qualifying words to other species of the genus, or
of the subfamily Milvinæ.

  Arabian k., Milvus ægyptiacus; Australian or square-tailed k., M.
isurus (Lophoictinia isura); black k., M. ater of southern Europe and
northern Africa; black-winged k., Elanus cæruleus of northern Africa;
brahminy k., Haliastur indus of Hindustan; Indian or pariah k., Milvus
govinda; Mississippi k., Ictinia mississippiensis; pearl or white-tailed
k., Elanus leucurus of N. America; swallow-tailed k., Elanoides
forficatus of N. America.

  Also locally applied (or misapplied), with or without qualification,
to birds belonging to other divisions of Falconidæ, as the Buzzard (bald
k.), Hen-harrier, and Kestrel.

    2. fig. A person who preys upon others, a rapacious person; a
sharper; also more indefinitely as a term of reproach or detestation.

    3. a. [From its hovering in the air like the bird.] A toy consisting
of a light frame, usually of wood, with paper or other light thin
material stretched upon it; mostly in the form of an isosceles triangle
with a circular arc as base, or a quadrilateral symmetrical about the
longer diagonal; constructed (usually with a tail of some kind for the
purpose of balancing it) to be flown in a strong wind by means of a long
string attached. Also, a modification of the toy kite designed to
support a man in the air or to form part of an unpowered flying machine
(cf. AEROPLANE 1).

  Kites are also used of special shapes, or with special appliances, for
various scientific and other purposes, e.g. the bird-kite, used to
frighten partridges (see KITE v. 2); cf. also ELECTRIC a. 2b, quot. 1898
here, and combs. in 9b.

    b. to fly (or send up) a kite (fig.): to try `how the wind blows',
i.e. in what direction affairs are tending. (See also 4.) A proposal or
suggestion offered or `thrown out' tentatively in order to `see how the
wind blows'. (Cf. BALLOND'ESSAI.) See also FLY v.1 5a.

    c. An aeroplane. slang, esp. Services'.

  The popular use of kite in this sense prob. originated with the `box-kite'
aeroplane (see BOX n.2 24); but the uses in quots. 1838, 1909 are direct
applications of kite in sense 3.

    d. Phr. high as a kite: see HIGH a. 16b.

    4. a. Commercial slang. (With jocular allusion to a paper kite,
sense 3.) A bill of exchange, or negotiable instrument, not representing
any actual transaction, but used for raising money on credit; an
accommodation bill. A person thus raising money is said to fly a kite:
see FLY v.1 5a.

    b. Criminals' slang. A communication (esp. one that is illicit or
surreptitious); spec. a letter or verbal message smuggled into, out of,
or within a prison.

    c. slang. A cheque (sense 3), esp. a blank cheque or a cheque drawn
on insufficient funds or forged from a stolen cheque-book.

    5. Naut.    a. (pl.) A name for the highest sails of a ship, which
are set only in a light wind. Also flying-kites.

    b. On a minesweeper, a device attached to a sweep-wire submerging it
to the requisite depth when it is towed over a minefield.

    6. Local name of a fish, the Brill.

    7. Name for a variety of the Almond Tumbler pigeon, having black
plumage with the inner webs of the quill-feathers passing into red or
yellow.

    8. Geom. A quadrilateral figure symmetrical about one diagonal (from
its resemblance to the form of a toy kite, sense 3); also called DELTOID.

    9. attrib. and Comb.    a. in sense 1, as kite-and-crow, -colour;
kite-coloured, -like adj.; kite bar, a bar or stripe of an undesirable
colour in the plumage of a fancy pigeon; kite-eagle, name for Neopus
(Ictinætus) malayensis, an East Indian hawk; kite-falcon, a hawk of the
genus Baza, having a crested head and two teeth in the beak; kite-fish,
a species of gurnard; {dag}kite-key (erron. kit-key), a name for the `key'
or fruit of the ash-tree; kite-tailed a., having a long tail like that
of a kite, as the kite-tailed widgeon, a species of duck (Dafila acuta)
found in Florida; {dag}kite-wolf, rendering of Gr. {ilenis}{kappa}{tau}{gifrown}{nu}{omicron}{fsigma}
(properly `a kite', also a kind of wolf).    b. in sense 3, as kite
expert, -line, -maker, -string; kite-faced, -like, -shaped adjs.;
kite-balloon, a balloon with a long string or wire attached, used for
scientific or other purposes; Kite mark, Kitemark, a quality mark,
similar in shape to a kite, granted for use on goods approved by the
British Standards Institution; also transf.; hence kite-mark v. trans.,
to use the Kite mark on; kite-marked ppl. a., bearing the Kite mark;
kite-photograph, a photograph taken by means of a camera attached to a
kite or kite-balloon; kite-tail (plug), name for an obstetric dressing
made with pledgets of lint or gauze affixed at intervals to a string or
tape, like the pieces of paper in the tail of a kite; kite-track (see
quot.).    c. in sense 4, kite-man, a person who obtains money against
bills of exchange or cheques that will not be honoured; spec. (see quot.
1967).

2. PEAR, N.
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1. a. The fleshy fruit of the pear-tree (see 2), a pome of a
characteristic shape, tapering towards the stalk; in the very numerous
cultivated varieties much esteemed as a dessert fruit, or for stewing,
etc.

    b. In various similes and allusions; formerly as a type of something
of very small value.

    2. The tree Pyrus communis (family Rosaceæ), or other species with
similar fruit; found wild in Europe and Asia, and widely grown in many
varieties for the fruit (sense 1), which under cultivation becomes
edible and rich-flavoured. More usually PEAR-TREE, q.v.

    3. Applied, with defining words, to various other fruits or plants
in some way resembling the pear: as ALLIGATOR pear, ANCHOVY-PEAR,
AVOCADO pear, GARLIC pear, GRAPE pear, PRICKLYPEAR, STRAWBERRY pear (see
these words); also hard pear (S. Africa), Olinia cymosa; vegetable pear
= CHOCHO; wild pear (W. Indies), Clethra tinifolia; wooden pear (Australia),
Xylomelum pyriforme (Treas. Bot. 1866).

    4. transf. Applied to things resembling a pear in shape; e.g. the
fruit or hip of the rose; a pear-shaped pearl used as an ornament. {dag}pear
of confession, a pear-shaped instrument of torture (cf. G. folterbirne).

    5. attrib. and Comb., as pear-bin, -bud, -eater, -hoard, -leaf,
-orchard, -pearl (cf. 4), -stock; pear-growing, -like, -shaped adjs.;
pear-apple, (a) a rough variety of apple: see quot. 1707; (b) the fruit
of a prickly pear, a cactus belonging to the genus Opuntia; {dag}pear-bit,
a kind of bit for a horse (? shaped like a pear); pear-blight, (a) a
destructive disease of pear-trees, caused by a bacterium (Micrococcus
amylovorus) which turns the leaves rapidly brown; = fire-blight s.v.
FIRE n. B. 5; (b) a disease of pear-trees caused by a beetle (Xyleborus)
which bores into the bark (pear-blight beetle, also called pin-borer);
pear-drop, (a) a pear-shaped sweet-meat, usually flavoured with
jargonelle-pear essence; (b) a pear-shaped jewel used as a pendant: see
DROP n. 10e, a; (c) used attrib. of parts of furniture, etc., shaped
like pears; pear-encrinite ({dag}-encrinus), an encrinite of the genus
Apiocrinus, from its shape; pear-gauge, a gauge invented by Smeaton,
consisting of a pear-shaped glass vessel and a hermetically closed tube,
for measuring the degree of exhaustion of air in an air-pump (see quot.
1822); pear-haw = pear-thorn; {dag}pear-jonet, -jenet, an early-ripening
kind of pear (cf. JENNETING); pear-louse, a kind of plant-louse (Psylla
pyri or pyrisuga) which infests the leaves and young shoots of the
pear-tree; pear midge, a small gall midge, Contarinia pyrivora, whose
larvae damage the fruit of pear trees; pear oyster scale, a scale-insect
(Aspidiotus ostreæformis) infesting the pear-tree; pear-plum, name of
several varieties of plum (? somewhat pear-shaped); pear-quince, a kind
of quince with pear-shaped fruit; pear-shell (see quot.); pear-slug, the
slug-like larva of a saw-fly, Selandria cerasi (Eriocampa limacina),
which infests the leaves of the pear and other fruit-trees; also called
plum-slug, slug-worm, etc.; pear-sucker = pear-louse; pear-thorn, an
American species of hawthorn (Cratægus tomentosa); {dag}pear-warden, a
kind of pear: see WARDEN; pear-wise adv., in the form of a pear;
pear-withe, a West Indian and South American climbing shrub, Tanæcium
jaroba. pear-wood, (a) the wood of the pear tree; (b) the wood of one of
several West African trees, esp. Guarea cedrata. Also PEAR-MONGER, -TREE.

3. PEARL, N. 1
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I. 1.    a. A nacreous concretion formed within the shell of various
bivalve molluscs around some foreign body (e.g. a grain of sand),
composed of filmy layers of carbonate of lime interstratified with
animal membrane; it is of hard smooth texture, of globular, pear-shaped,
oval, or irregular form, and of various colours, usually white or
bluish-grey; often having a beautiful lustre, and hence highly prized as
a gem; formerly also used in medicine. See also MOTHEROFPEARL, SEEDPEARL.

  The chief source is the Pearl-oyster, Meleagrina margaritifera, of the
Indian Seas, but pearls are yielded by many other marine, as well as by
some freshwater shells, the pearl-mussels, Unionidæ.

    b. (without a or pl.) As name of the substance.

    c. = MOTHEROFPEARL. Chiefly attrib.: see 17a.

    d. artificial pearl, an imitation of the natural gem, made of glass,
etc. blister pearl, a flattish excrescence of pearl adhering to the
shell. Roman pearl (see quot. 1875).

  essence of pearl, an imitation of mother-of-pearl prepared from the
scales of the bleak, herring, and other fish; now usu. called pearl
essence (see sense 18).

    2. Her. In blazoning by precious stones, the designation of the
tincture argent or white.

    3. fig.    a. Something especially precious, noble, or choice; the
finest or best member or part; a fine or noble example or type.

    b. Prov. to cast pearls before swine, to offer or give a good thing
to one who is incapable of appreciating it, but may defile or abuse it.
(From Matt. vii. 6.)

    II. In transferred senses.

    {dag}4.    a. The pupil of the eye; the crystalline lens.

    {dag}b. A thin white film or opacity growing over the eye; a kind of
cataract. Obs. or dial. [med.L. perula, Du Cange.]

    5. A small and round drop or globule resembling a pearl in shape or
aspect; e.g. a dewdrop, a tear.

    6. Rhetorically applied to white glistening teeth. Also collective:
cf. `ivory'.

    7. One of the bony tubercles encircling the bur or base of a deer's
antler.

    8.    {dag}a. Pearls of Spain: the white grape-hyacinth (from the
shape of its flowers). Obs. rare.

    b. An oat-like grass (Arrhenatherum avenaceum) with knotted or
tuberous base: = PEARL-GRASS 2.

    9. One of several small white or silver balls set on a coronet; a
similar ball as a heraldic bearing; also, a small white circle on a
coloured ground.

    10. Printing. Name of a size of type, formerly the smallest used,
now intermediate between agate and diamond.

    11. Eastern Ch. (rendering {mu}{alpha}{rho}{gamma}{alpha}{rho}{giacu}{tau}{eta}{fsigma}).
A small particle of the consecrated bread: = PARTICLE 2c.

    12. A small fragment or size of various substances: e.g. one of the
pear-shaped granules into which molten metal cools when poured in drops
into cold water; a small piece of clean coal; a name for a small pill or
pilule, esp. a gelatinous capsule employed for administering liquid
medicines in the form of pills.

    13. A degree of condensation and stickiness reached by clarified
syrup when boiled for confectionery: see PEARLED ppl. a.1 4.

    14. Short for pearl-moth: see 18.

    15. Name of a kind of firework.

    16. a. The colour of a pearl, a clear pale bluish-grey. Also attrib.
or as adj. = pearl-coloured.

    b. Applied to an electric light bulb that is frosted on the inside
so as to diffuse the light.

    III. attrib. and Comb.

    17. a. attributive:    (a) of pearl or pearls, adorned with pearls,
as pearl-bead, -broker, -chain, -collar, -colour, necklace, -rope,
string, stud, -sword, -wreath;    (b) made of mother-of-pearl, as pearl
spoon;    (c) in sense 5, as pearl-cup, -dew, -drop.    b. objective and
obj. genitive, as pearl-cutter, -driller, -worker; pearl-bearing,
-making, -producing, -sliding, -yielding adjs.    c. instrumental, as
pearl-besprinkled, -bordered, -crowned, -enamelled, -encrusted, -flushed,
-gemmed, -handled, -headed, -hung, -lined, -lipped, -paved, -set,
-studded, -wreathed adjs.    d. parasynthetic, as pearl-coloured, -hued,
-tinted adjs.    e. similative, as pearl-blue, -bright, -grey (also as
n.), -pale, -pure, -round adjs.; also pearl-like adj.

    18. Special combs.: pearl-berry, the fruit (a small drupe) of an
evergreen rosaceous shrub (Margyricarpus selosus) often cultivated on
rock-work; also the shrub itself; also fig.; pearl-bird, (a) the
guinea-fowl, so called from its white-spotted plumage; (b) the
pearl-spotted barbet, an African bird of genus Trachyphonus; pearl-bush,
a large handsome Chinese shrub (Spiræa or Exochorda grandiflora),
bearing racemes of white flowers; pearl button, (a) a button made of a
pearl; (b) a button made of mother-of-pearl or an imitation of it;
pearl-coated a., (a) dial.: see quot. 1828; (b) covered, as a pill, with
a smooth pearly-white coating; so pearl-coating; {dag}pearl-cordial, a
cordial containing powdered pearl; pearl-disease, tuberculosis of the
serous membranes in cattle; pearl essence, pearlessence, essence of
pearl (see PEARL n.1 1d), or a synthetic imitation of this;
pearl-everlasting, the common white everlasting, Gnaphalium
margaritaceum (Treas. Bot. 1866); pearl-eye, {dag}(a) cataract in the
eye (obs.); (b) an eye of a pigeon or other bird, resembling a pearl; so
pearl-eyed a.; pearl-fish, {dag}(a) a shell-fish producing pearls; (b) a
fish (e.g. the bleak) from the shining scales of which artificial pearl
is made (Funk's Stand. Dict. 1895); (c) = FIERASFER; pearl-fly: see
quot.; pearl-fruit = pearl-berry (Treas. Bot. 1866); pearl-glimmer =
pearl-mica; {dag}pearl-gooseberry, a variety of gooseberry; pearl-grain,
the grain or unit of weight by which the value of pearls is estimated; a
carat-grain, one fourth of a carat; pearl-hardening, a preparation of
gypsum used to give body and substance to poor paper; pearl-hen, the
guinea fowl; {dag}pearl-julep, a sweet drink made with sugar of pearl;
pearl-lashing Naut., `the lashing which holds the jaws of the gaff' (Cent.
Dict. 1890); {dag}pearl-mica, an obsolete synonym of Margarite;
pearl-moss, a name for carrageen (Chondrus crispus); pearl-moth, a
pyralid moth of the genus Botys or Margaritia, so called from its
shining appearance; pearl-mussel, a species of mussel bearing pearls;
pearl-nautilus, the pearly nautilus; pearl-onion: see ONION 2;
pearl-opal = CACHOLONG; pearl-perch, a sea-fish of New South Wales (Glaucosoma
scapulare, family Percidæ), excellent for food; {dag}pearl-plant: see
quots.; pearl-pottery: see quot.; pearl-powder, a cosmetic used to
impart whiteness to the skin; = pearl-white; hence pearl-powdered a.;
pearl-sago, sago in small hard rounded grains; pearl-side, the name of a
fish, the Sheppey argentine (Scapelus pennanti or humboldtii), having
pearly spots on the sides; pearl-sinter, a synonym of Fiorite;
pearl-snail, the pearly nautilus; pearl-spar, `an early name for
crystallized dolomite showing a pearly lustre, including also some
ankerite' (Chester Dict. Names Minerals 1896); {dag}pearl-spice, spice
in small rounded grains; pearl-tea, gunpowder-tea (Cent. Dict. 1890);
pearl-tree: see quot.; pearl-tumour, (a) an encysted tumour, the surface
of which is covered with white pearly scales; (b) a tumour in the brain,
containing small calcified particles resembling grains of sand; (c) in
cattle = pearl-disease; pearl-weed = PEARLWORT; pearl-white a., pearly
white; orig. used of PEARLWARE; also ellipt. as n. = PEARLWARE,
pearl-powder: see quots. Also PEARL-ASH, -BARLEY, -DIVER, etc.

4. PEARL, N. 2
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Obs.

    A clearing preparation for wine.

5. PEARL, N. 3
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? Obs.

    A local name of the fish BRILL.

6. PEARL, N. 4
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One of a row of fine loops forming a decorative edging on
pillow-lace, braid, ribbon, gold-lace, etc. Chiefly in Comb., as
pearl-edge, -loop, -purl, -tie: see quots.

  The oldest spelling seems to be PURL, app. connected with PURL v.1,
but whilst this has become established technically in the machine-made
lace trade, popular etymology seems to favour the spelling pearl, prob.
because the ornamental loops somewhat resemble an edging of pearl-drops.

7. PEARL, V. 1
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1. trans. To adorn, set, or stud with or as with pearls, or with
mother-of-pearl. (Only in pa. pple.)

    2. To sprinkle with pearly drops.

    3. To furnish (a stag's horns) with pearls. Only in pa. pple.

    4. To make pearly in colour or lustre; to suffuse with a pearly
light or hue.

    5. a. To convert or reduce (barley, sago, etc.) into the shape of
small round pearls.

    b. To refine (potassium carbonate) in the preparation of pearl-ash.

    6. To cover (comfits) with a coating of `pearl' sugar: see PEARL n.1
13. Also intr. for refl.

    7. intr. To form pearl-like drops or beads.

    8. intr.    a. To seek or fish for pearls.

    b. Surfing. (See quots.)

8. PEARL, V. 2
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Obs.

    trans. ? To render clear and pellucid; to clarify (wine) with a
clearing preparation.

9. PEARL, V. 3
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`To edge with lace' (Jamieson 1880). See PEARLED ppl. a.2

10. PEARL
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variant of PURL v. and n. in knitting.