kid
noun
a child or young person.
Trivia Time
Which actor portrayed the Sundance Kid in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?
kid
1 American
[kid]
/ kɪd /
noun
-
kids
plural
-
Informal. a child or young person.
-
(used as a familiar form of address.)
-
a young goat.
-
leather made from the skin of a kid or goat, used in making shoes and gloves.
-
a glove made from this leather.
verb (used with or without object)
kidded,
kidding
kid
2
American
[kid]
/ kɪd /
Kid
3
American
[kid]
/ kɪd /
noun
kid
1
British
/ kɪd /
noun
-
the young of a goat or of a related animal, such as an antelope
-
soft smooth leather made from the hide of a kid
-
informal
-
a young person; child
-
(modifier) younger or being still a child
kid brother
kid sister
-
-
dialect my younger brother or sister
verb
kid
2
British
/ kɪd /
verb
-
(tr) to tease or deceive for fun
-
(intr) to behave or speak deceptively for fun
-
(tr) to delude or fool (oneself) into believing (something)
don't kid yourself that no-one else knows
Kid
3
British
/ kɪd /
noun
kid
4
British
/ kɪd /
noun
kid
Idioms
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of kid1
First recorded in 1150–1200; Middle English kide, from Old Norse kith
Origin of kid2
First recorded in 1805–15; perhaps special use of kid 1
Explanation
If a farmer offers to introduce you to her kid, you might not know if she means her child or her baby goat. A kid is a child, informally, and it's also a young goat. Sometimes the word kid means a kind of soft leather made from goat skin. When kid is used as a verb, it means to tease or jokingly deceive someone — to kid them. Some sticklers for formality object to using kid to mean "child," but that meaning has been around since the 1590s. The "teasing" definition of kid comes from the sense of "treat like a child."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Manning has plenty of defenders, arguing that this a kerfuffle about nothing, that Manning is a college kid reacting like a college kid to a fake video of something that didn’t happen.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
“God, this kid has really been railroaded,” she remembers thinking.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
Before Denver, you lived briefly as a kid in Los Angeles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
If the language of “reparenting” works for you, then fine: hide your vegetables the way you would for a picky kid you were responsible for keeping fed.
From Salon ● Sep. 15, 2026
I turn it around in my hands, nod my head toward the kid on the other side of the table.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
In other words, a yes-man—especially when told not to investigate helicopter stunts at Kid Rock’s house.
From Slate ● Aug. 29, 2026
What’s paying full price for an Ugly Kid Joe CD you never wanted compared to all that?
From Salon ● Aug. 21, 2026
The defense secretary reversed the suspension of an Apache helicopter aircrew that hovered near the home of musician Kid Rock in March.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 16, 2026
The single "Real Gone Kid" became their first top 10 single in the UK Singles Chart while Dignity is one of their most popular songs.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
Not even Bones in high gear or Horse at full gallop could outrun the Vitamin Kid.
From "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya
One of my kids worried aloud that the ship might be “stuck” in the ocean.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026
We spoke about why kids are depressed, what parents can do about it and how to make childhood great again.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
When it came to the kids in Doug’s class, Bonilla wanted to reflect the multicultural mosaic that is the Los Angeles Unified School District.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
More on this: The kids are out of the house, and I saved for college.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026
There were far fewer kids my age here, so we didn’t even have our own high school.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
This claim of passivity kidded nobody except maybe himself.
From Slate ● Jun. 16, 2025
His father was a boilermaker on the Lake Erie Railroad and Lujack was often kidded that he should have gone to Purdue, not Notre Dame.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2023
On a flight to Chicago, Devers kidded Bello he would hit two homers on Friday.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 15, 2023
In flight, Sadat kidded her about her salary; his was only $12,000.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 30, 2022
Scotty and another guy — his name tag read Palumbis — kidded me about the flinching.
From "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers
“I’m not kidding — this is the best kicker/punter I’ve seen,” Yabu said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2026
You’re not kidding when you say there’s a lot to think about!
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026
If you’d told readers two decades ago that Whitehead would become a bestselling crime novelist, they might have thought you were kidding.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
When harangued by CNBC’s Joe Kernan to “reject” the winners, Jeffries replied, “Donald Trump is the president right now. Are you kidding me?”
From Salon ● Jun. 28, 2026
It took me a couple of seconds to see that he was kidding, even though there’s nothing funny about missing your legs, you know.
From "Okay for Now" by Gary D. Schmidt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
