KICKING

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does kicking mean? 

• KICKING (noun)
  The noun KICKING has 2 senses:

1. a rhythmic thrusting movement of the legs as in swimming or calisthenics

2. the act of delivering a blow with the foot

  Familiarity information: KICKING used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• KICKING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A rhythmic thrusting movement of the legs as in swimming or calisthenics

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

kick; kicking

Context example:

the swimmer's kicking left a wake behind him

Hypernyms ("kicking" is a kind of...):

motility; motion; move; movement (a change of position that does not entail a change of location)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "kicking"):

swimming kick (a movement of the legs in swimming)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of delivering a blow with the foot

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

boot; kick; kicking

Context example:

the team's kicking was excellent

Hypernyms ("kicking" is a kind of...):

blow (a powerful stroke with the fist or a weapon)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "kicking"):

goal-kick ((association football) a kick by the defending side after the attacking side sends the ball over the goal-line)

goal-kick ((rugby) an attempt to kick a goal)

punt; punting ((football) a kick in which the football is dropped from the hands and kicked before it touches the ground)

place-kicking; place kick ((sports) a kick in which the ball is placed on the ground before kicking)

dropkick ((football) kicking (as for a field goal) in which the football is dropped and kicked as it touches the ground)

Derivation:

kick (strike with the foot)

kick (drive or propel with the foot)

 Context examples 

Of course the children tyrannized over her, and ruled the house as soon as they found out that kicking and squalling brought them whatever they wanted.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The authors predict that the current solar cycle, Solar Cycle 24, will end in the first half of 2020, kicking off Solar Cycle 25 shortly afterward.

('Terminators' on the sun trigger plasma tsunamis, start of new solar cycles, National Science Foundation)

So far so good, but it next occurred to my recollection that a taut hawser, suddenly cut, is a thing as dangerous as a kicking horse.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

“I know not about that,” said John, kicking his helmet up into the air and catching it in his hand.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When it reared, the master put the spurs to it and made it drop its fore-legs back to earth, whereupon it would begin kicking with its hind-legs.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

And Minnie had made a practice of kicking his heels, whenever they crossed from one side of the street to the other, to remind him to get over on the outside.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

They began to drop off, to be brushed off against the sharp edge of the scuttle, to be knocked off by the legs which were now kicking powerfully.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The same researchers have previously suggested that babies kicking in the womb may be creating mental maps of their own bodies, and say their new findings may reflect the same process for the internal body.

(Baby Hiccups Key to Brain Development, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Look here; to gain some real affection from you, or Miss Temple, or any other whom I truly love, I would willingly submit to have the bone of my arm broken, or to let a bull toss me, or to stand behind a kicking horse, and let it dash its hoof at my chest—Hush, Jane! you think too much of the love of human beings; you are too impulsive, too vehement; the sovereign hand that created your frame, and put life into it, has provided you with other resources than your feeble self, or than creatures feeble as you.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

These observations, and indeed the greater part of the observations made that evening, were interrupted by Mrs. Micawber's discovering that Master Micawber was sitting on his boots, or holding his head on with both arms as if he felt it loose, or accidentally kicking Traddles under the table, or shuffling his feet over one another, or producing them at distances from himself apparently outrageous to nature, or lying sideways with his hair among the wine-glasses, or developing his restlessness of limb in some other form incompatible with the general interests of society; and by Master Micawber's receiving those discoveries in a resentful spirit.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)