The Sailor's Word-Book Part 143

KILDERKIN. A vessel containing the eighth part of a hogshead.

KILE. _See_ KYLE.

KILL. A channel or stream, as Cats-kill, Schuylkill, &c.

KILL-DEVIL. New rum, from its pernicious effects.

KILLER. A name for the grampus, _Orca gladiator_, given on account of the ferocity with which it attacks and destroys whales, seals, and other marine animals. (_See_ GRAMPUS.)

KILLESE. The groove in a cross-bow.

KILLING-OFF. Striking the names of dead officers from the navy list by a _coup de plume_.

KILLOCK. A small anchor. Flue of an anchor. (_See_ KELLAGH.)

KILLY-LEEPIE. A name on our northern sh.o.r.es for the _Tringa hypoleucos_ or common sand-piper.

KILN. The dockyard building wherein planks are steamed for the purpose of bending them to round the extremities of a s.h.i.+p.

KIN. _See_ KINN.

KING ARTHUR. A game played on board s.h.i.+p in warm climates, in which a person, grotesquely personating King Arthur, is drenched with buckets of water until he can, by making one of his persecutors smile or laugh, change places with him.

KING-CRAB. The _Limulus polyphemus_ of the West Indies.

KING-FISH. The _Zeus luna_. Carteret took one at Masafuero 5-1/2 feet long, and weighing 87 lbs. Also, the _s...o...b..r maximus_ of the West Indies.

KING-FISHER. The _Alcedo ispida_; a small bird of brilliant plumage frequenting rivers and brooks, and feeding upon fish, which it catches with great dexterity. (_See_ HALCYON.)

KING JOHN'S MEN. The Adullamites of the navy.

KING'S BARGAIN: GOOD OR BAD; said of a seaman according to his activity and merit, or sloth and demerit.

KING'S BENCHER. The busiest of the galley orators: also galley-skulkers.

KING'S HARD BARGAIN. A useless fellow, who is not worth his hire.

KING'S LETTER MEN. An extinct cla.s.s of officers, of similar rank with mids.h.i.+pmen. The royal letter was a kind of promise that if they conducted themselves well, they should be promoted to the rank of lieutenant.

KING'S OWN. All the articles supplied from the royal magazines, and marked with the broad arrow. Salt beef or junk.

KING'S PARADE. A name given to the quarter-deck of a man-of-war, which is customarily saluted by touching the hat when stepping on it.

KINK. An accidental curling, twist, or doubling turn in a cable or rope, occasioned by its being very stiff, or close laid, or by being drawn too hastily out of the coil or tier in which it was coiled. (_See_ COILING.)--_To kink._ To twist.

KINKLINGS. A coast name for periwinkles.

KINN. From the Gaelic word for head; meaning, in local names, a hill or promontory.

KINTLE. A dozen of anything. Remotely corrupted from _quintal_.

KINTLIDGE. A term for iron-ballast. (_See_ KENTLEDGE.)

KIOCK, OR BLUE-BACK. An alosa fish, used by the American and other fishermen as a bait for mackerel.

KIOSK. A pavilion on the p.o.o.p of some Turkish vessels.

KIPLIN. The more perishable parts of the cod-fish, cured separately from the body.

KIPPAGE. An old term for equipage, or s.h.i.+p's company.

KIPPER. Salmon in the act of sp.a.w.ning; also, the male fish, and especially beaked fish. Kipper is also applied to salmon which has undergone the process of _kippering_ (which see).

KIPPERING. A method of curing fish in which salt is little used, but mainly sugar, pepper, and drying in the sun, and occasionally some smoke. Salmon thus treated is considered a dainty, though the cure is far less lasting than with salt.

KIPPER-TIME. The time during which the statutes prohibit the taking of salmon.

KISMISSES. The raisins issued in India, resembling the sultanas of the Levant. The word is derived from the Turkish. They seldom have seeds.

KIST. A word still in use in the north for chest.

KIT. A small wooden pail or bucket, wherewith boats are baled out; generally with an ear. (_See_ KID.) Also, a contemptuous term for total; as, the whole kit of them.

KITT, OR KIT. An officer's outfit. Also, a term among soldiers and marines to express the complement of regimental necessaries, which they are obliged to keep in repair. Also, a seaman's _wardrobe_.

KITTIWAKE. A species of gull of the northern seas; so called from its peculiar cry: the _Larus tridactylus_.

KITTY-WITCH. A small kind of crab on the east coast.

KLEG. The fish _Gadus barbatus_.

KLEPTES. The pirates of the Archipelago; literally the Greek for robbers.

KLICK-HOOKS. Large hooks for catching salmon in the daytime.

KLINKER. A flat-bottomed lighter or praam of Sweden and Denmark.

KLINKETS. Small grating-gates, made through palisades for sallies.

KLIPPEN. The German for cliffs; in use in the Baltic.--_Blinde Klippen_, reefs of rocks under water.

KLOSH. Seamen of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

KNAGGY. Crotchety; sour-tempered.

KNAGS. Points of rocks. Also, hard knots in wood.

KNAP [from the Anglo-Saxon _cnaep_, a protuberance]. The top of a hill.

Also, a blow or correction, as "you'll knap it," for some misdeed.