kite (1), kyte

[A. S. cyta.] I. Ordinary Language : 1. In the same sense as II. 1. "The kite , who, by a light turning of his train, moves his body which way he pleases." -Ray: On the Creation, pt. i. 2. A name of reproach, denoting rapacity. "Detested kite ! thou liest." -Shakesp.: Lear, i. 4. 3. An artificial bird or light frame covered with paper or cloth, and flown at the end of a string. "He will madly burn, or childishly make paper kites of his deeds."-Government of the Tongue. 4. Fictitious commercial paper or accommodation bills; used especially in the phrase, to fly a kite (q. v.). II. Technically: 1. Ornithology: (1) The Swallow-tailed Kite is Elanoides fur cat us , an American bird, and the European Honey kite Pernis apivorus . [PERNIS.] (2) Sing .: Milvus, a genus of Aquiline (Eagles). The Common European Kite is Milvus ictinus . It may be known on the wing by its forked tail. (3) Pl .: Swains on's name for his Cymindinse, a sub-family of Falcon ide. He places the genus Milvus in Buteonine. 2. Naut.: One of the unusual sails above the royal; sky-sails, moon-rakers, . (1) Electrical kite : [ELECTRIC-KITE.] (2) To fly a kite : 2438 for believing that while it was in use in Britain early in the twelfth century, the North men retained their round shield till a later period."- D . Wilson: Prehistoric Annals, ii. 349. kite-shaped racetrack, s . An American form of race course in which the run is neither straight away nor circular, but laid out along lines resembling the outlines of a kite.