Today we look at the word kick, laying out as much of its use in English as possible.

Things you need to know to get started:

The Idea of Kicking involves

1 – feet

2 – and almost without exception involves some type of impact, usually with some fast motion.

Many things can be kicked, from a ball to a person, to an idea.

Kick can be combined with many prepositions to specify direction and intensity of impact,

such as kick down, kick in, kick up, kick through, kick around, kick out, kick off.

Depending on how it is used and what words it is combined with, kick can have either a positive or a negative connotation.

These ideas are the core of any meaning of the word kick and it’s a good idea to keep them in mind when looking at the more metaphorical and idiomatic uses of the word.

Basic uses of the word:

The striker kicked the ball through the goal.

The martial artist did a cool spinning kick.

Babies kick when they are inside the womb.

The police kicked down the door to enter the house.

(all of these examples are straightforward and involve an actual leg and foot, a kicker and a thing kicked)

This is where it starts to get more complex:

1—If the game “kicked off at 7 o’clock”, it began or got started at 7 o’clock. This comes from American Football where a game officially begins when the game ball is kicked off a tee by one team toward the opposing team.

Another example is “The Rolling Stones kicked off their concert with the classic song “Sympathy for the Devil”. We see that kick off can be used for any event that gets started, like a concert, a game, a project, a TV program, etc.

2— “Joe’s girlfriend kicked him out of the house.” means that Joe was expelled from the house. The idea here is that something [Joe] is being kicked away and removed from some boundary [the house]. A person can also be kicked out of a club, a country, a party, etc., again reinforcing the idea of being expelled from a given area.

3—“The marketers kicked around the idea for a few days.” means they thought about the idea, discussed it, and contemplated it, for a few days. The idea here works like a ball that you pass from player to player in soccer, looking for a way to put the ball/idea into action. Note: if a person complains about getting kicked around, they are complaining about being abused or disrespected or not taken seriously by others. Here the person is the metaphorical ball.

The next few examples (4-7) all have a similar idea in common: kick as a drug/stimulant and its effect on people.

4—If the doctor tells you that “the medication will kick in in about one hour”, then the medication will take effect in one hour. The medicine here acts like a foot kicking in a door. As it kicks in, you’ll feel the impact of the dosage of medicine. Here, your body is the thing being kicked and the drug being the metaphorical foot.

5—“This beer/drink has kick.” Means this beer/drink has potency. Again, similar to the idea of impact/effect from the medicine, whatever drug the drink has [alcohol], will have an effect on you. The use here is productive because 1) “kick” has fewer syllables than “potency” and 2) its use creates a more vivid image of the strength and effect of the drink.

6—Frank Sinatra sings the song “I get a kick out of you” written by Cole Porter. This song typifies the idea of kick as stimulant/drug/source of pleasure or excitement/thrill. In the song, he contrasts the things that he doesn’t feel a kick from (cocaine, an airplane, champagne) to the object of the song, who he gets great pleasure from. It’s important to note that this pleasure comes from the characteristics of the person, the traits they have and the effect [like a drug] that those characteristics have on a person. Here is a link the Frank Sinatra version of the song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtwO2tKZmwQ

One can get a kick out of anything: a person, drugs, sports, games, reading, etc.

7—“I like to drive fast just for kicks.” Means I like to drive fast for fun. Similarly, one can get a kick out of driving fast.

8—Melinda loves to kick off her shoes when she gets home.                                                                  (Melinda loves to get her shoes off by shaking them off as if kicking into the air)

9—They took to the child to the dentist kicking and screaming.

(The child was protesting a lot about going to the dentist)

10—It’s common to say “Don’t kick a man when he’s down.”

(don’t cause more harm or damage to a person when they are already in a bad situation in life)

11—On weekends, I like to kick back and relax on my sofa.

( . . . I like to be in a relaxed position . . .)

12—I was hard to kick the habit of smoking.

(. . . quit . . .)

13—I was kicking myself for not buying the TV when it was on sale; now it costs $100 more.

(I am angry at myself, I feel regret. Here kick means punishment, pain.)

14—if someone is “alive and kicking” they are doing well healthwise.

In some dialects, the term “kick it” is used for hanging out with or spending time with your friends:

I like to kick it with my friends after work

Kick can also be found as a compound word:

Sidekick – Robin is Batman’s sidekick. [assistant]

Kickback – The politician took illegal kickbacks from anonymous sources. [bribes, amounts of money in exchange for favors]

Try your knowledge of kick with the quiz below.

1. Once you are hooked on drugs, it is hard to _______.

2. I _______ for not investing in that company when the stock was just pennies per share.

3. It can’t always be all work and no play; sometimes you just have to ____________.

4. After semesters of academic probation they finally _____ him ____ of school.

5. The celebrations are set to ___________ at 6 p.m. and continue through midnight.

6. He never arrests any corrupt politicos because they keep him well fed on sizable ______.

7. Many superheroes have famous ___________ who help them fight crime.

8. I’ve always _______________ watching kids play, they are really entertaining.

9. He had a serious car accident but after a month in the hospital he’s _______________.

10. When Jimmy was a kid, bullies always ______ him _______ but after martial arts classes he was able to stand up for himself and stop the abuse.

It’s important to note that the above list is by no means exhaustive. New meanings of kick pop up with the evolution of language. Recently I heard the sentence “I’m on a Sopranos [TV series] kick.” If you look at the above definitions you might be able to derive a meaning of the expression. Perhaps something along the lines of Sopranos acting as a stimulant/drug/source of pleasure.

I encourage readers to post their own sentences using the word as well as questions they may have about the examples provided.