Kicks

How to spell kicks

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce kicks

What does kicks mean?

1. verbStrikes something with the foot (third-person singular).
2. nounMore than one blow delivered with the foot.
3. nounA feeling of pleasurable excitement or thrill, often in the phrase 'for kicks'.
4. nounInformal term for shoes, especially trainers or sneakers.

Kicks in a sentence

• verb

  The swimmer kicks steadily to stay afloat in the deep end.

• noun

  The self-defence class practised a series of high kicks against the pads.

• noun

  He started entering quiz nights purely for kicks after a long week at work.

• noun

  She spent her first paycheque on a fresh pair of kicks.

• verb

  Whenever the music starts, the baby kicks her legs with delight.

• noun

  The mule delivered two sharp kicks to the fence rail.

Where does kicks come from?

Language of origin: Unknown

The base verb 'kick' first appears in English in the late 1300s, and its earliest origin is genuinely uncertain, so most dictionaries label it as origin unknown. One reasonable suggestion connects it to Old Norse roots related to thrusting or striking out with the leg, since Norse settlers left a deep mark on northern English vocabulary, but the evidence is thin. The literal sense, to strike out with the foot, has stayed remarkably stable across the centuries. The lively figurative uses came much later: 'a kick' meaning a thrill or burst of excitement grew popular in the early twentieth century, and the slang sense of 'kicks' for shoes is a mid twentieth century American coinage. The spelling is phonetically straightforward, with the only point of note being that the hard final sound is written 'ck' before the plural 's'.

How the word is built

• kick (strike with the foot)
• -s (plural noun / third-person singular verb ending)