Emily Dickinson Lexicon

key, n². [OFr kay]

Ledge; reef; bank; geographical formation; [fig.] index; explanation; answer for anything difficult to understand; (word play) kind of music; musical register.

keyless, adj. [see key, n¹.] (webplay: played).

[Lit.] without an opening or locking mechanism; [fig.] answerless; unsolvable; without explanation; [word play] undefined musical register; musically nondescript.

kid, n. [ON kið, young goat]

Leather made from kid-skins.

Kidd (William Kidd), proper n. [ME < ON]

William Kidd (1645-1701); seventeenth-century English explorer; man on a quest for gold in the Americas; pirate who was hung for his crimes.

Kidderminster, proper n. [OE Cydda's, one who carries provisions, and mynster, monastery, church]

Town in Worcestershire, England; place famous for its carpet industry started in 1735; [metonymy] kidder cloth; reversible double-sided woven goods.

kill (-ed, -s), v. [origin obscure.] (webplay: lay, life, stab, vital).

1. Put to death; slay; destroy the vitality of an organism.
2. Sacrifice by bloodshed; slaughter.
3. [Fig.] quell; put an end to a feeling for; suppress a desire for.

kind (-er), adj. [see kind, n.] (webplay: child, father, happy, man, married, nature, see, small, thing).

1. Acceptable; agreeable; pleasant; charming.
2. Merciful; loving; charitable; benevolent.

kind (-s), n. [OE gecynde < OE cyn, to produce, engender, beget.] (webplay: Disposed, ear, heart, love, others, see, state, sort, tenderness, voice, way).

1. Gentle people; people who are benevolent.
2. Sort; class; genus; type.
3. Way; mode; path; direction; means; method.

kindle, v. [ON < ON kyndill, a candle, torch.] (webplay: flame).

Shine; radiate; burn; be on fire; be inflamed; [fig.] glow with color; NW gives Isaiah 9:18 as an example: “It shall kindle in the thickest [sic] of the forest.”

kindly, adj. [OE gecyndelíc, see kind, n.] (webplay: nature).

Affectionate; loving; charitable; sympathetic; benevolent.