King

King, king, n. the chief ruler of a nation: a monarch: a playing-card having the picture of a king: the most important piece in chess: a crowned man in draughts: one who is pre-eminent among his fellows:—fem. Queen.—v.t. to play king.—ns. King′-at-arms, or King′-of-arms, a chief officer of the Heralds' Colleges, whose designations are, for England, Norroy, Clarencieux, and Garter; for Scotland, Lyon; and for Ireland, Ulster; King′-bird, an American tyrant fly-catcher; King′crab, the chief or largest of the crab genus, most common in the Molucca Islands; King′craft, the art of governing, mostly in a bad sense; King′cup, the buttercup or upright meadow crowfoot; King′dom, the state or attributes of a king: the territory of a king: government: a region: one of the three grand divisions of Natural History, as the animal, vegetable, or mineral.—adj. King′domed (Shak.), endowed with kingly power, proud.—ns. King′fisher, a bird with very brilliant plumage, feeding on fish, the halcyon; King′hood, kingship: kingliness.—adj. King′less.—ns. King′let, King′ling, a little or petty king: the golden-crested wren.—ns. King′lihood, King′liness.—adj. King′-like.—adj. King′ly, belonging or suitable to a king: royal: noble—also adv.—ns. King′-mak′er, one who has the creating of kings in his power; King′post, a perpendicular beam in the frame of a roof rising from the tie-beam to the ridge; King's′-cush′ion, a seat formed by two people's hands; King's′-ē′vil, a scrofulous disease or evil formerly supposed to be healed by the touch of the king; King′ship, the state, office, or dignity of a king; King's′-hood, the second stomach of a ruminant, sometimes humorously for the human stomach; King's′-spear, a plant of the genus Asphodel; King's′-yell′ow, arsenic trisulphide or orpiment; King′-vul′ture, a large tropical brilliantly-coloured American vulture; King′wood, a beautiful Brazilian wood—also Violet-wood.—King Charles spaniel (see Spaniel); King Log, a do-nothing king, as opp. to King Stork, one who devours his frog-subjects—from Æsop's fable; King Mob, the vulgar multitude; King of beasts, the lion; King of metals, gold; King of terrors, death; King of the forest, the oak; King's Bench, the bench or seat of the king: one of the high courts of law, so called because the king used to sit there, called Queen's Bench during a queen's reign; King's counsel an honorary rank of barristers; King's evidence, a criminal allowed to become a witness against an accomplice.—Kingdom come (slang), the state after death.—Three kings of Cologne, the three Wise Men of the East, Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. [A.S. cyning—cyn, a tribe, with suffix -kin; cog. with kin.]