kit
Pluralkits
Pluralkits
- 1A set of tools, equipment, clothing, or personal belongings gathered for a particular activity or journey, such as a workman's tools or a soldier's gear.
The surveyor laid out her kit on the tailgate of the truck.
Travelers were told to keep their overnight kit in a single bag.
UsageOften after another noun: first-aid kit, tool kit, survival kit.
- 2A package of components that the purchaser builds into a finished item themselves.
He spent the weekend building a guitar from a mail-order kit.
The drone arrived as a kit, with the rotors packed separately.
- 3A drummer's full set of drums and cymbals, played together as a single instrument.
He bought a five-piece kit with two crash cymbals.
The band's new kit included an electronic snare pad.
Similarset
Note
Drummers' everyday shorthand. Once the context is music, drum drops away, and kit alone means the whole setup one player sits behind: a bass drum worked by a foot pedal, a snare, toms, a hi-hat and cymbals. Because those pieces are played as a single instrument, the word stays singular: a drummer plays one kit, also called a drum set or a set of drums.
- 4The standard clothing, accessories, and equipment worn by players on a sports team.
The club released its new home kit ahead of the season.
Players are expected to keep their kit clean between matches.
UsageOften home kit or away kit; in American English, uniform is more usual.
Note
British sports talk for everything a team turns out in, from shirts and shorts to armbands. Jeremy Wilson's 2011 match report on England Under-21 against Iceland treats black armbands with stitched-in poppies as part of the team's turnout for the match. Where British English says kit, American English more often says uniform or gear.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- Jeremy Wilson's 2011 report on England Under-21 against Iceland describes black armbands with stitched-in poppies and connects their preparation with the England kit manufacturer. en.wiktionary.org
- 5To provide someone with the equipment or clothing needed for an activity.
The company will kit its new staff with safety gear before their first shift.
Before the trip, the club kitted out every new member with a helmet, gloves, and a life vest.
UsageUsually kit someone out, with the gear or in the clothes: kitted out in new colors.
- 6
Less common meanings
- 7Clothing in general, especially the clothes a person happens to be wearing.
She left her kit in a heap on the bedroom floor.
Throw on some warm kit before you head outside.
UsageBest known in get your kit off, a cheeky way to say undress; also get your kit on.
Similarclothes, gear, togs, garb
Note
Stretched from gear to whatever anyone happens to be wearing, the word has its liveliest home in one British phrase: get your kit off, meaning undress.
He got his kit off and dived straight into the sea.
She refused to get her kit off for the photo shoot.
- 8The whole set of things; everything taken together.
Do you know the proportion between ten and twelve or thirteen? — No; I should suppose you may take the whole kit of them as thirty; and the rest are people at from twenty to forty years of age.
1818, Reports, Great Britain. Parliament. House of LordsUsageNow mostly in the whole kit and caboodle.
Note
Older English used the word for an entire lot, people included. An 1818 House of Lords report could speak of taking "the whole kit of them as thirty." On its own that use now sounds dated. It survives chiefly in the fixed phrase the whole kit and caboodle, where the two nouns reinforce each other to mean absolutely everything.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- Kit historically meant an entire lot and could include people. en.wiktionary.org
- 9To collect or assemble separate items together into kits.
Our team kits the components for every machine before the build starts.
Suppliers kit the hardware so each customer gets one package.
Similarassemble, bundle, package
Note
A manufacturing and logistics verb: you kit parts by gathering everything a job needs into one ready-to-use set, and the process is called kitting. The object is the parts, never the person. That is what separates it from the "equip someone" verb, where people are the ones being supplied.
- 10The set of skills and abilities available to a playable character in a game.
Players unlock new abilities to round out their character's kit.
The latest patch reworked the assassin's kit entirely.
Similarmoveset
Note
Gamers use the word for everything a character can do: its skills, abilities and loadout. Together these define the role the character plays in a match. The word attaches naturally to a character, as in a healer's kit or the assassin's kit. Designers talk of reworking or rounding out a kit when they rebalance one.
- 11A small fox of the arid regions of western North America, notable for its oversized ears (Vulpes macrotis).
- 12A full software distribution, rather than a patch or upgrade.
- 13Synonym of kit violin: a tiny pocket violin once used by dancing masters.
A dancing master's kit.
1681, Nehemiah Grew, Musæum Regalis Societatis. Or A Catalogue & Description of the Natural and Artificial Rarities Belonging to the Royal… - 14A basket woven especially from straw or rushes for holding fish, and by extension the quantity it holds, used as a measure of weight.
He was pushing a barrow on the fish dock, wheeling aluminium kits which, when full, each contain 10 stone of fish.
1961, Guardian (cited after OED) - 15A round wooden vessel built from hooped staves, resembling a small tub or pail.
- 16A flock of pigeons, especially tame, trained birds kept and flown together.
Showing meanings only.
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Origins
From Middle English kyt (also kytt, kytte), from Middle Dutch kitte, meaning a wooden vessel made of hooped staves, and related to Dutch kit ("tankard"). The further origin is unknown, though it is perhaps from Proto-Germanic *kitjō-, *kut-. The sense shifted to a soldier's knapsack contents in the late 18th century, to any travelling necessaries in the early 19th century, and to a set of parts for assembly in early 20th-century US English.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- Kit derives from Middle English kyt, kytt or kytte, from Middle Dutch kitte for a wooden vessel made of hooped staves, and is related to Dutch kit, meaning tankard. en.wiktionary.org
- The further origin is unknown; Proto-Germanic *kitjō- and *kut- are suggested possibilities. en.wiktionary.org
- The soldier's-knapsack sense dates to the late 18th century. gutenberg.org
- The travelling-necessaries sense dates to the early 19th century. en.wiktionary.org
- The assembly-parts sense was already used in American English by 1926. The museum documents a receiver sold as a kit and described in a February 1926 publication. newsm.org
A short form of kitten or kitling, recorded from the 16th century (spelled kytte, kitt). From the 19th century it was extended to other young animals such as the beaver, fox, mink, and muskrat, and to the kit fox; this later usage was perhaps influenced by chit.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- The animal sense is a shortening of kitten or kitling. en.wiktionary.org
- This sense is recorded from the sixteenth century with the spellings kytte and kitt. en.wiktionary.org
- Nineteenth-century extensions included young beavers, foxes, mink and muskrats, and the small fox called the kit fox. en.wiktionary.org
- Influence from chit is a proposed explanation for the later animal uses. en.wiktionary.org