kick in
Britishverb
-
(intr) to start or become activated
-
informal (tr) to contribute
-
Contribute one's share, as in We'll kick in half if you take care of the rest . [ Colloquial ; c. 1900]
-
Also, kick off . Die, as in No one knows when he'll kick in , or He finally kicked off yesterday . [ Slang ; first half of 1900s] Also see kick the bucket .
-
Begin to operate, as in Finally the motor kicked in and we could get started . This usage was first recorded in 1908.
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.
Many people think cognitive decline doesn’t really kick in until later decades of life, while dementia only affects the oldest of the old.
It’s doubtful that any trading algorithms kicked in, except those that might have been keyed to a sharp reversal of trading sentiment from earlier in the week, when it was pretty sour.
From Los Angeles Times
US sales climbed eight percent despite the 25-percent tariff on Japanese auto exports imposed by Washington between April and mid-September, when a 15-percent cap kicked in.
From Barron's
He describes the pain kicking in as he was being put in the ambulance.
From BBC
But there was tension on board, kicking in with the adrenaline.
From BBC
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.
