Dictionary

kickable en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˈkɪkəbəl/

Etymology

Etymology tree English kick Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom Proto-Italic *-ðlom Proto-Italic *-ðlis Latin -bilis Latin -ābilis Old French -ablebor. Middle English -able English -able English kickable From kick + -able.

Meanings

1. Capable or deserving of being kicked.
   • The home side were showing adventure, running from deep in their own half and booting a kickable penalty to touch.
   • All sorts of kickable objects were used from ancient times until today's inflated ball, with a leather casing between 27 and 28 inches in circumference, was adopted. 1950 October 14, John W. Wood, “The World's favorite Sport”, in Popular Mechanics, volume 94, number 4, Hearst Magazines, →ISSN, page 137:
   • The weekend inventor has five U.S. patents and three more pending for inspirations such as a kickable Frisbee, a clothes-ironing mitt and a leak-proof shower curtain. 1997, “By The Seat Of His Pants”, in Ski, volume 61, number 7, →ISSN, page 22:
   • I look at her as the very gizzard of a trifle, […] fitter to be kickt, if ſhee vvere of a kickable ſubſtance, than either honoured or humoured. 1647, Theodore de la Guard [pseudonym; Nathaniel Ward], The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America. […], London: […] J[ohn] D[ever] & R[obert] I[bbitson] for Stephen Bowtell, […], →OCLC, pages 24–25:
   • Kickable people are of various descriptions. Amongst these are your kickable subjects prima facie;—those whose provocatives are visible and external, whose incentives to you to kick them lie chiefly in manner and bearing. 1842, Alexander Campbell, “Kickable People”, in Sketches of Life and Character, page 10:
2. (qualifier:describing a behaviour or trait) Incurring kicking.
   • Insolence of office is pre-eminently kickable. Who ever went into a public office, and was treated, as he is very apt to be, with the most offensive hauteur by some saucy, well-paid official, without feeling the desire to kick him rising strong within him? […] Petty tyranny is also eminently kickable. 1842, Alexander Campbell, “Kickable People”, in Sketches of Life and Character, page 11:
   • The first serious outbreak and renewal of hostilites ^([sic]) occurred when Dolly—who was now out of the doctor's hands—one morning sent his footman off at a moment's notice, for gross impertinence of the severest kickable kind. 1860, Augustus Mayhew, “The Finest Girl in Bloomsbury. A Tale of Ambitious Love. [serial novel, Chapter IX: Mrs. Ickle's Triumph]”, in The Welcome Guest, London: Houlston and Wright, page 464:
   • What if the very things you like in me now—you'd hate sometime. What if the things I think are strong and stunning in you now, I'd think were pig-headed and kickable after a while? 1923, Rachel Crothers, “Act III”, in Mary the Third[:] A Comedy in Prologue and Three Acts:

Forms

Deriveds

unkickable