Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A child.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • It was -- _The kinchin will bite the bubble_ -- I pondered, and fifty times questioned -- 'Who is _the kinchin_?

    The Adventures of Hugh Trevor Thomas Holcroft 1777

  • ‘Not she—she won’t start—she swore by the salmon, 1if we did the kinchin no harm, she would never tell how the gauger got it.

    Chapter XXXIV 1917

  • ‘Nein, nein; the kinchin got about the old man’s heart, and he gave him his own name, and bred him up in the office, and then sent him to India—I believe he would have packed him back here, but his nephew told him it would do up the free trade for many a day, if the youngster got back to Scotland.

    Chapter XXXIV 1917

  • "That's the kinchin as was to try the dub for us, ain't it?" muttered

    Jack Sheppard A Romance William Harrison Ainsworth 1843

  • Claypole, bespeaking his good lady's attention, proceeded to enlighten her relative to the arrangement he had made, with all that haughtiness and air of superiority, becoming, not only a member of the sterner sex, but a gentleman who appreciated the dignity of a special appointment on the kinchin lay, in London and its vicinity.

    Oliver Twist Charles Dickens 1841

  • Noah Claypole, bespeaking his good lady's attention, proceeded to enlighten her relative to the arrangement he had made, with all that haughtiness and air of superiority, becoming, not only a member of the sterner sex, but a gentleman who appreciated the dignity of a special appointment on the kinchin lay, in London and its vicinity.

    Oliver Twist 1838

  • 'Not she! she won't start; she swore by the salmon, [Footnote: The great and invoidable oath of the strolling tribes.] if we did the kinchin no harm, she would never tell how the gauger got it.

    Guy Mannering — Complete Walter Scott 1801

  • 'Not she! she won't start; she swore by the salmon, [Footnote: The great and invoidable oath of the strolling tribes.] if we did the kinchin no harm, she would never tell how the gauger got it.

    Guy Mannering, Or, the Astrologer — Complete Walter Scott 1801

  • 'Nein, nein; the kinchin got about the old man's heart, and he gave him his own name, and bred him up in the office, and then sent him to India; I believe he would have packed him back here, but his nephew told him it would do up the free trade for many a day if the youngster got back to Scotland.'

    Guy Mannering, Or, the Astrologer — Complete Walter Scott 1801

  • 'Nein, nein; the kinchin got about the old man's heart, and he gave him his own name, and bred him up in the office, and then sent him to India;

    Guy Mannering — Complete Walter Scott 1801

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