kid
noun
a child or young person.
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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:
“I was,” she recalls, an “attention-hungry kid who wanted her father’s love, and I couldn’t rest until I had it. And I would never have it.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 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
And I’m like, ‘Jamie, what are you talking about? I’m a special ed kid.’
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2026
"I'm a regular kid from west Belfast, from an Irish-Ghanian background. I'm nothing special, but just want to leave a legacy the next generation can aspire to."
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
Someone—Jonah thought it was a kid in the skull group—muttered, “Why would we want to?”
From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
You’re developing your own show, based on your book, “Legitimate Kid: A Memoir.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
It's featured bigger acts like Aitch, Window Kid and legendary grime crew Roll Deep - while also giving space for up-and-coming artists like Da Savage.
From BBC ● Jun. 18, 2026
Strains of “Sweet Home Alabama” greet you—first the original, then, immediately afterward, the Kid Rock version—as you emerge onto a White House lawn transformed for the occasion.
From Slate ● Jun. 16, 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
Through watering eyes I saw the Kid and Ida, still walking side by side across the bridge!
From "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya
Parents often say, “I know exactly what decisions my kids would make.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
“It’s a testament to the true support of Live Nation, but also that these kids are ready, and they thrive there,” Francois said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
"And maybe their kids were just right there playing in the water," he added.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
The big declines in kids have changed the social fabric of cities across the country and are already hitting local public school systems hard.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
A group of four adults and two small kids stand in front of me.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
This claim of passivity kidded nobody except maybe himself.
From Slate ● Jun. 16, 2025
Sojobi kidded with the new grandmother that she had grown new gray hairs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2023
On a flight to Chicago, Devers kidded Bello he would hit two homers on Friday.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 15, 2023
The charming, comic sequence in which Elliott’s mother overlooks E.T. among a closetful of stuffed animals both kidded and celebrated the character’s potential take-home commodification; Spielberg was now also in the toy business.
From New York Times ● Aug. 4, 2022
He sometimes kidded me about being so short, but I always had an easy answer: “Bigger guys make bigger targets.”
From "Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two" by Joseph Bruchac
They’re kidding, but he invites himself along anyway, in the hope that hanging with 20-somethings will miraculously make him hip.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
These statistics suggest that some analysts may be kidding themselves — and us — when they argue that the Nasdaq composite’s recent drop is healthy — nothing more than a normal bull-market rotation between sectors.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 29, 2026
And even while kidding, Kupp couldn’t help but say out loud what many Rams followers are thinking.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026
This continued for days — in tweet after tweet, over and over and over again, he claimed he was kidding.
From Salon ● May 20, 2026
“Are you kidding? I requested this hall. There’s no one like Nina Simone.”
From "Sparrow" by Sarah Moon
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.
