KITE-FLIER. A financier who practises the operation of "kite-flying." KITE-FLYING. An expression well-known to mercantile men of limited means, or who are short of cash. It is a combination between two persons, neither of whom has any funds in bank, to exchange each other's checks, which may be deposited in lieu of money, taking good care to make their bank accounts good before their checks are presented for payment. Kite-flying is also practised by mercantile houses or persons in different cities. A house in Boston draws on a house in New York at sixty days or more, and gets its bill discounted. The New York house, in return, meets its acceptance by re-drawing on the Boston house. Immense sums of money are often raised in this manner - in fact, furnishing a capital for both houses to transact their business with.

Flying the kite is rather a perilous adventure, and subjects a man to a risk of detection. One who values his credit as a sound and fair dealer would by no means hazard it.-Perils of Pearl Street, p. 82.

It appears that Yankeeland cannot claim the honor of inventing either the practice or the phrase; for at a legal dinner in Ireland, Lord Norbury said to Chancellor Milford:

In England you have to raise a wind to fly a kite, but in Ireland here we fly kites to raise the wind.

KNEE HIGH TO A MOSQUITO. A common hyperbolical expression to denote diminutive stature; as, "I knew him before he was knee high to a mosquito."

KNICKER OF NICKER. (Dutch, knikker.) A boy's clay marble; a common term in New York. It is also used in England, being defined by Halliwell: "A little ball of clay or earth baked hard and oiled over, for boys to play at nickers."

KNICKERBOCKER. A descendant of one of the old Dutch families of New York City.

KNICK-KNACKERY or NICKNACKERY. A knick-knack.

There is one branch of trade which has not suffered in common with other things, and that is the sale of costly knicknackeries, especially women's superlative gear. New York Tribune.

KNOB. In Kentucky, round hills or knolls are called knobs. These hills are formed by the weathering of the soft sandstones and shales composing them. The approach to this "knob formation" from the rich land is very characteristic, and the sudden change in soil is accompanied by a corresponding change in the inhabitants. The word, however, has extended its meaning, and in Kentucky, as well as other parts of the West, is used simply for hill. In Maryland and Virginia the term knob is ap

plied to the highest peaks of the Blue Ridge, and other irregular mountains.

Approaching Galena, the country becomes still more broken and rocky, until at last a few short hills, here called knobs, indicate our approach to Fever River. Hoffman, Winter in the West, p. 303.

KNOBBY. Hilly. The prairie of south-western Missouri is characterized by what are called knobs or mounds; they are somewhat variable in size and form, but usually present the appearance of a truncated cone.Swallow's Geology of Missouri, p. 204.

KNOBITE. A dweller in the "knob" formation of Kentucky. KNOB-LICK. The base of the "knobs" contains shales, which furnish alum and other salts, forming "licks," to which wild and domestic animals resort. One of these knob licks in Mercer county, Kentucky, is a very remarkable spot, and was in former times a favorite resort of the buffaloes. Many acres are entirely devoid of vegetation, and clay banks in every possible shape occupy the surface.

KNOCK-DOWN AND DRAG-OUT. A fight carried to extremities.

There are good, quiet, easy people in the world, who scarcely open their lips or raise their fingers, lest Dogberry So-and-so across the way might take it in high dudgeon, and forthwith demand an explanation or a knock-down and drag-out. — New York Spirit of the Times, Sept. 30, 1848.

Mike professed to be considerable of a fighter, and, in a regular knock-down and drag-out row, was hard to beat. - Southern Sketches, p. 30.

KNOCK-KNEEd. One whose knees are so close that they "interfere” in walking. It is doubtless an English expression, though not in the dictionaries.

Risingh, who succeeded to the command of New Sweden, looms largely in ancient records as a gigantic Swede, who, had he not been knock-kneed and splay-footed, might have served for the model of a Samson. - Knickerbocker, New York.

KNOCKED INTO A COCKED HAT. Knocked out of shape; spoiled; ruined. The allusion or metaphor seems to be that of the hat of some unlucky wight, which, by a violent blow, has been knocked into a sort of flattened, three-cornered shape, resembling an old-fashioned cocked hat.

A tall, slatternly looking woman, wearing a dingy old silk bonnet, which was knocked into a cocked hat, appeared yesterday before the Recorder. - New Orleans Picayune.

One of the omnibuses here run full tilt against a cart, and knocked every thing into a kind of cocked hat. — Major Downing, May-day in New York.

At a Repeal meeting in New York, Mr. Locke was proceeding to speak of the influence this party would have, when he was interrupted by a gang of rowdies, who, with the design of disturbing the meeting, cried out, "Three cheers for O'Connell -three cheers for Repeal—and three groans for Slavery!" The six cheers for

O'Connell and Repeal were given; but by the time they came to the groans for Slavery, they found themselves all knocked into a cocked hat. New York Paper.

Between three and four thousand persons were assembled at the Broadway Tabernacle the other evening to hear temperance lecture from the talented Mr. Gough. There were 66 'long-robed doctors" enough to have constituted a standing army. The Rev. Dr., who opened the meeting with prayer, got through in the very short space of three quarters of an hour; but it was full long enough to knock the spirit of the meeting into a "cocked hat.". New York Tribune.

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TO KNOCK ABOUT. To go or saunter about. An English phrase, though not in the dictionaries.

A long course of solicitation, haunting public offices, and knocking about town, had taught him [General Gates], it was said, how to wheedle, and flatter, and accommodate himself to the humors of others. - Irving, Life of Washington, Vol. I. p. 423.

TO KNOCK DOWN. To assign to a bidder at an auction by a blow on the counter; as, "The tall copy of Shakspeare was knocked down to Mr. Jones."

TO KNOCK off. To dock off; deduct.

TO KNOCK ROUND.

Vulgar.

To go about carelessly, to wander or saunter about,

i. e. "to knock about."

I'm going to New York and Boston, and all about thar, and spend the summer until pickin' time, knockin' round in them big cities, 'mong them people what's so monstrous smart, and religious, and refined, and see if I can't pick up some ideas worth rememberin'.- Major Jones's Sketches.

The Indian will lose his hair, if he and his band knock round here too often. Ruxton, Life in the Far West.

KNOW-NOTHINGS. A new and more proscriptive party of "Native Americans," which originated in the year 1853. The New York Times gives the following account of the origin of the name: "The Know-Nothing party, it is pretty generally known, was first formed by a person of some notoriety in New York, who called himself Ned Butline.' 'Ned' was once a midshipman in the United States Navy, but left the service and commenced the business of Americanism on a large scale, by founding a secret political order, of so exclusive a character that none were to be admitted as members whose grandfathers were not natives of the country. It is a difficult matter, in a country like the United States, where free inquiry is so common, to keep any thing secret; and Ned instructed his proselytes and acolytes to reply to all questions in respect to the movements of the new party, 'I don't know.' So, they were at first called 'Don't-knows,' and then Know-Nothings,' by outsiders, who knew nothing more of them than that they invariably replied, 'I don't know,' to all questions." The following articles of their "platform" or set of

principles, according to the "American Crusader," one of the leading newspapers of the party, contain the gist of the whole:

1. Repeal of all naturalization laws.

2. None but native Americans for office.

3. A pure American common school system.

4. War to the hilt on Romanism.

These were the principles of the ultra men of the party. In Louisiana and other parts they were disposed to be more liberal towards the Roman Catholics, admitting such as were born in the United States. There was also a difference of opinion regarding slavery, and upon the latter issue the party became divided into North and South Americans. See also Sam and Hindoos.

KNOW-NOTHINGISM. The doctrines of the Know-Nothings.

The Know-Nothings have had their day, and very soon there will be nothing left of them but their name. The earth hath bubbles, and Know-Nothingism was one of them. New York Times.

KONCKS, or CONKS. Wreckers are so called, familiarly, at Key West; and the place they inhabit is called Koncktown.

KOOL SLAA. A contraction for the Dutch Kool-salade, i. e. Cabbage salad. Many persons who affect accuracy, but do not know the origin of the term, pronounce the first syllable as if it were the English world cold.

KOOYAH ROOT, or KOOYAHS. A term applied by the Indians in Oregon to a root used by them in making a bread called supale. The plant yielding the root is Valeriana officinalis or V. Edulis, probably the same as that sometimes written Kous. It is frequently called Tobacco Root. It should be baked in the ground two days, to deprive it of poisonous properties. The bread has an offensive taste to those not familiarized to it. KRISS KRINGLE. (Germ. Christ Kindlein.) The infant Christ. The German for child is kind, of which the diminutive is kindlein or kindchen. This, in some parts of Germany and in Pennsylvania, has been formed into kindel, and the children are promised gifts at Christmas from "Christ kindel." The corruption of this last into Kriss Kringle, as a name for the babe of Bethlehem, is neither English nor bad German, but a mere jargon or gibberish of the vilest kind.

L.

LABRADOR TEA. (Ledum palustre.) A plant used far in the North-west as a substitute for tea.

LAFAYETTE FISH. (Leiostomus obliquus.) A delicious sea-fish, which ap

pears in the summer in great abundance at Cape Island on the Jersey coast, and is hence called the Cape May Goody. The name Lafayette fish, by which it is known in New York and its vicinity, was given it on account of its appearance one summer coinciding with the last visit of General Lafayette to America. - Professor S. F. Baird.

LADIES' TRESSES. (Neottia tortillis.) The popular name, in the Southern States, for an herb so called from the spiral arrangement of its flowers, resembling curls.

LAGER-BEER. (Germ. Lager-Bier, i. e. Stock-beer.) Sometimes contracted into lager. A kind of small beer introduced a few years ago into the American cities by the Germans, and now much in vogue among all classes. The following story is told of its origin:

Many years ago a shoemaker, near Bamberg, sent his apprentice to get a bottle of Bamberg beer, which was sold at that place; but the boy, not knowing this, went to the city itself. On returning, he met an acquaintance of his, who told him that when he would come home, his "boss" would whip him for staying so long. The poor boy, who was frightened at this, thought it better not to go home at all, but took his bottle, buried it under a tree, and ran away. He went among the soldiers, where he distinguished himself, so that, in short, he became an officer. When one day his regiment was quartered in this small town, the officer thought proper to pay a visit to his old boss, but not before he had got the bottle of beer, which he had buried some years before under the tree. When he entered, he said: "Well, Sir, here I bring you your bottle of Bamberg beer that you sent me for." maker, not knowing what this meant, was told by the officer all about it. was then opened, and the beer was found to be of superior quality. When this fact was known, some of the brewers built deep vaults, where they put their beer, and called it, after it had lain there some time, lager, which means nothing more than lying [not so; it means the beams in the cellar on which the casks are laid]. The officer afterwards married the daughter of the shoemaker, and drank a good deal of lager beer, receiving in that occupation the assistance of his father-in-law. - National Intelligencer, February 12, 1857.

The shoeThe bottle

The Philadelphia Ledger says that there are one hundred thousand barrels, of thirty-two gallons each, of lager beer, manufactured in that city in a year. That is a barrel for every male adult in the city. - Baltimore Sun, July 12, 1858.

The German drinks his lager, and drinks it apparently in indefinite quantities, without any of the usual effects of intoxication. — New York Express, June, 1858.

LAKE LAWYER. (Genus, Amia. Linnæus.) The Western Mud-fish. It is found in Lakes Erie and Ontario, where it is known by the name of Dog-fish. Dr. Kirtland says, it is also called the lake lawyer, from its "ferocious looks and voracious habits."

To LAM. (Belg. lamen.) To beat soundly; to drub. Colloquial in some of the Northern States. It is provincial in Yorkshire, England. - Willan's Glossary.

If Millwood were here, dash my wig,

Quoth he, I would beat her and lam her weel. - Rejected Addresses.