King

king, n. the chief ruler of a nation: a monarch: a playing-card having the picture of a king: the most important piece in che : a crowned man in draughts: one who is pre-eminent among his fellows:— fem. Queen .— v.t. to play king.— ns. King′-at-arms , or King′-of-arms , a chief officer of the Heralds' Colleges, whose designations are, for England, Norroy, Clarencieux, and Garter; for Scotland, Lyon; and for Ireland, Ulster; King′-bird , an American tyrant fly-catcher; King′crab , the chief or largest of the crab genus, most common in the Molucca Islands; King′craft , the art of governing, mostly in a bad sense; King′cup , the buttercup or upright meadow crowfoot; King′dom , the state or attributes of a king: the territory of a king: government: a region: one of the three grand divisions of Natural History, as the animal, vegetable, or mineral.— adj. King′domed ( Shak. ), endowed with kingly power, proud.— ns. King′fisher , a bird with very brilliant plumage, feeding on fish, the halcyon; King′hood , kingship: kingline .— adj. King′le .— ns. King′let , King′ling , a little or petty king: the golden-crested wren.— ns. King′lihood , King′line .— adj. King′-like .— adj. King′ly , belonging or suitable to a king: royal: noble—also adv. — ns. King′-mak′er , one who has the creating of kings in his power; King′post , a perpendicular beam in the frame of a roof rising from the tie-beam to the ridge; King's′-cush′ion , a seat formed by two people's hands; King's′-ē′vil , a scrofulous disease or evil formerly supposed to be healed by the touch of the king; King′ship , the state, office, or dignity of a king; King's′-hood , the second stomach of a ruminant, sometimes humorously for the human stomach; King's′-spear , a plant of the genus Asphodel; King's′-yell′ow , arsenic trisulphide or orpiment; King′-vul′ture , a large tropical brilliantly-coloured American vulture; King′wood , a beautiful Brazilian wood—also Violet-wood .— King Charles spaniel (see Spaniel ); King Log , a do-nothing king, as opp. to King Stork , one who devours his frog-subjects—from Æsop's fable; King Mob , the vulgar multitude; King of beasts , the lion; King of metals , gold; King of terrors , death; King of the forest , the oak; King's Bench , the bench or seat of the king: one of the high courts of law, so called because the king used to sit there, called Queen's Bench during a queen's reign; King's counsel an honorary rank of barristers; King's evidence , a criminal allowed to become a witne against an accomplice.— Kingdom come ( slang ), the state after death.— Three kings of Cologne , the three Wise Men of the East, Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. [A.S. cyning — cyn , a tribe, with suffix -kin ; cog. with kin .]