Kicking

How to spell kicking

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce kicking

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does kicking mean?

1. verbStriking out with the foot, or repeatedly hitting something with the foot.
2. adjectiveInformal description of a place or event that is lively, busy, and full of energy.

Kicking in a sentence

• verb

  The toddler kept kicking the blanket off during the night.

• adjective

  By midnight the club was kicking, with the dance floor packed.

• verb

  He spent the afternoon kicking a football against the garage wall.

• adjective

  The street market was already kicking when we arrived at nine.

Where does kicking come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

The base verb 'kick' first appears in Middle English as 'kiken' around the late 1300s, and its earlier history is genuinely murky, which is why dictionaries usually flag it as origin uncertain. One plausible thread links it to Old Norse, since the Scandinavian languages had related words for striking out with the foot, and Norse settlement left many such everyday action words in northern English. The literal sense has always been to strike out with the foot, and the figurative meanings (to complain, to give up a habit, or to describe something lively) all grew from that vivid physical image. The form 'kicking' is simply the verb plus the ordinary '-ing' ending used for ongoing actions and for gerunds. Because the root ends in a single short vowel followed by 'ck', the spelling stays regular: the 'ck' already does the work that a doubled consonant would, so you just add '-ing' without any further change.

How the word is built

• kick (root: to strike with the foot)
• -ing (present participle / gerund suffix)