kid
noun
a child or young person.
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:
She said she wanted to make "every kid" in Greater Manchester "feel they can succeed".
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026
And that’s coming from a guy who never read comic books as a kid.
From Salon ● Jul. 31, 2026
“We have an autistic kid ... someone said that we could apply for him, but it’s hard,” said Blanca.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
“It just seemed like a very nice place where I would have no problem letting my kid ride a bike down the street,” Jordan said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
There are two plastic frogs shooting water from their mouths, a miniature playground rising from the shallow water, and a padlocked fence separating the kid area from the actual lake.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
Price also confessed, “We’re pulling from Bob Dylan, ‘Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid.’
From Salon ● Jul. 14, 2026
You’re developing your own show, based on your book, “Legitimate Kid: A Memoir.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
After the band broke up in 1979, Ms. Daye recorded a successful solo album, and Messrs. Darnell and Hernandez formed the popular Kid Creole and the Coconuts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026
In three minutes, I complete the first deck, “Why Your Kid Tunes You Out.”
From Slate ● May 10, 2026
“Those are just a hobby, Ashish. Kid stuff. This is real life. It’s not high school anymore.”
From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon
Anton said he naturally became great friends with their kids Gethin and Charlotte spending their time playing outside, riding bikes and enjoying their time together.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026
“I’m gonna kiss my kids a few more times,” Simpson told a deputy, before the father’s attorney buckled the crying boys, now 20 months old, into car seats.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
Read: College kids are moving into retirement communities for reasons beyond ‘cheap rent’
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 31, 2026
While traveling, the Schwartzes went to Paris and saw kids breaking on the street.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
The group of about twenty kids is seated in a circle, listening to Wes, who is in the middle of a story.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
This claim of passivity kidded nobody except maybe himself.
From Slate ● Jun. 16, 2025
Harp gets kidded by one of his former players, Sean Brown, a member of the 1987 championship team who went on to Colorado.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2024
On a flight to Chicago, Devers kidded Bello he would hit two homers on Friday.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 15, 2023
I’m seeing a therapist and already feeling better, but I’m kind of shook by how easily I kidded myself that I was fine.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 30, 2022
I even kidded Alice about the names she chose for her children.
From "Kindred" by Octavia Butler
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
“My mom made $34,000 a year, single mom raising three kids — she couldn’t pay $4,000 for me to play club soccer. Are you kidding? She couldn’t pay $400,” Donovan said.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 9, 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
“Are you kidding me?…That just compounded the whole situation,” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026
“Well, you weren’t kidding when you said it was big, Delsie. Now I understand why a regular ladder wouldn’t do.”
From "Shouting at the Rain" by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
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.
