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Webster 1913 Edition

Kidney

Kid′ney

(kĭd′ny̆)
,
Noun.
;
pl.
Kidneys
(kĭd′nĭz)
.
[OE.
kidnei
,
kidnere
, from Icel.
koiðr
belly, womb (akin to Goth.
gipus
, AS.
cwiþ
womb) + OE.
nere
kidney; akin to D.
nier
, G.
niere
, OHG.
nioro
, Icel.
nȳra
, Dan.
nyre
, Sw.
njure
, and probably to Gr.
νεφρόσ
Cf.
Kite
belly.]
1.
(Anat.)
A glandular organ which excretes urea and other waste products from the animal body; a urinary gland.
☞ In man and in other mammals there are two kidneys, one on each side of vertebral column in the back part of the abdomen, each kidney being connected with the bladder by a long tube, the ureter, through which the urine is constantly excreted into the bladder to be periodically discharged.
There are in later times other decrees, made by popes of another
kidney
.
Barrow.
Millions in the world of this man’s
kidney
.
L'Estrange.
Your poets, spendthrifts, and other fools of that
kidney
, pretend, forsooth, to crack their jokes on prudence.
Burns.
☞ This use of the word perhaps arose from the fact that the kidneys and the fat about them are an easy test of the condition of an animal as to fatness. “Think of that, – a man of my kidney; – . . . as subject to heat as butter.”
Shak.
3.
A waiter.
[Old Cant]
Tatler.

Webster 1828 Edition

Kidney

KID'NEY

,
Noun.
[I have not found this word in any other language.]
1.
The kidneys are two oblong flattened bodies, extending from the eleventh and twelfth ribs to the fourth lumbar vertebra, behind the intestines. Their use is to separate the urine from the blood.
2.
Sort; kind. [A ludicrous use of the word.]
3.
A cant term for a waiting servant.

Definition 2024

kidney

kidney

English

Noun

kidney ‎(plural kidneys)

  1. An organ in the body that filters the blood, producing urine.
    • 2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 5 (Technology Quarterly):
      An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.
  2. This organ (of an animal) cooked as food.
  3. (figuratively, dated) Constitution, temperament, nature, type, character, disposition. (usually used of people)
    • 1599, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act V
      Falstaff: " … think of that, - a man of my kidney, - think of that, …"
    • L'Estrange
      millions in the world of this man's kidney
    • Burns
      Your poets, spendthrifts, and other fools of that kidney, pretend, forsooth, to crack their jokes on prudence.
    • 1920, T.S. Eliot, A Cooking Egg:
      I shall not want Honour in Heaven
        For I shall meet Sir Philip Sidney
      And have talk with Coriolanus
        And other heroes of that kidney.
  4. (obsolete, slang) A waiter.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Tatler to this entry?)

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

an organ in the body

See also

Etymology

From Middle English kednei, kidenei, from earlier kidnēre, kidenēre ‎(“kidney”). Of obscure origin and formation. Probably a compound consisting of Middle English *kid, *quid ‎(“belly, womb”), from Old English cwiþ, cwiþa ‎(“belly, womb, stomach”) + Middle English nēre ‎(“kidney”), from Old English *nēora ‎(“kidney”), from Proto-Germanic *neurô ‎(“kidney”), from Proto-Indo-European *negʷh-r- ‎(“kidney”). If so, then related to Scots nere, neir ‎(“kidney”), Saterland Frisian Njuure ‎(“kidney”), Dutch nier ‎(“kidney”), German Niere ‎(“kidney”), Danish nyre ‎(“kidney”), Swedish njure ‎(“kidney”), Ancient Greek νεφρός ‎(nephrós).

Alternate etymology traces the first element to Old English cēod, codd ‎(“sack, scrotum”), from Proto-Germanic *keudō ‎(“sack”) as the terms for testicle and kidney were often interchangeable in Germanic (compare Old High German nioro ‎(“kidney", also "testicle”), Old Swedish vig-niauri ‎(“testicle”). More at codpiece.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈkɪdni/

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