kid
noun
a child or young person.
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kidded.
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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:
Allstar has long been a champion of UK rap and currently presents the Rap Show on BBC Radio 1, which he describes as "the show I always wanted as a kid".
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026
Man winds up fighting to keep the kid.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026
“Honestly, I was a weird, loud, gay kid in Richmond, Virginia, and I’m excited to bring it to places that might not get this kind of thing,” he noted.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2026
Brown, who grew up in Alice Springs, said he never dreamed as a kid that he would be riding the Melbourne Cup, but he had been given "a lot of great support" in his career.
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026
The only kid with enough points for advancement was Elliot, but I was surprised to see how many points my fellow classmates had managed to accumulate while I avoided the tests like the plague.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
Maher prodded Trump in a monologue last Friday after attending a White House dinner alongside Kid Rock and ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith.
From Salon ● Oct. 28, 2026
She pivoted to film and TV movies after the series ended, garnering roles in “Love at First Bite,” “The Kid from Nowhere,” and “Don’t Cry, It’s Only Thunder.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026
In the dirge-like “Ghosts of Greater Men,” he refers to Billy the Kid, Neil Armstrong and George Jones as lingering spirits at this time when “We’re starving for something that’s better than this.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026
The two songs we were able to remember for sure hearing were “I Got You Babe” by Sonny & Cher and “Picture” by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
On the balcony next door, Al Ulbrickson, the Deadpan Kid, stood motionless, expressionless, a cigarette in his mouth.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
My husband and I have been married for 30 years, with four grown kids.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2026
“It was street kids, Hispanic kids. All of a sudden, the fans were realizing, ‘Wait a minute — this music represents us, the artists look like us.’
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026
"We were asking what's the cost for these children. We wanted actual numbers, a real number of kids based on the geographic location of each school."
From Science Daily ● Nov. 4, 2026
"I'm feeling elated. The kids are all right. I was concerned about them. They didn't seem very engaged, but I was wrong. They showed up."
From Barron's ● Nov. 4, 2026
“Auntie, you know we’re not little kids anymore. We don’t require our foods to be animal-shaped,” I remind her.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
This claim of passivity kidded nobody except maybe himself.
From Slate ● Jun. 16, 2025
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
Mikaela Shiffrin said she kidded her dad that he was more excited about Diggins than one of her races “and that’s saying something.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 7, 2022
“Seems like someone’s becoming one-hundred-percent Amer-icanized,” Theresa kidded.
From "Typical American" by Gish Jen
"I will let you keep ice hockey, and I will let you keep your 'O Canada' national anthem," he promised before adding: "We're only kidding."
From BBC ● Oct. 20, 2026
In 2018, Stephen Curry said he didn’t think humans had ever been there, although two days later the Golden State Warriors superstar said that he was kidding.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
“Seventy-five percent of the time Adrian and I would be walking around and say, ‘Are you kidding me?’”
From Salon ● Sep. 25, 2026
You’re not kidding when you say there’s a lot to think about!
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026
Axel thinks that George is kidding, he does, but George doesn’t smile or laugh at the idea.
From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
