Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a prison, a lock-up.

1827–8		W. Hone Table-book n.p.: He would put him in the kitty for an impostor [F&H].
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 118/2: Kitty, the. 1. A prison; a jail; a reformatory.

2. the ‘pool’ in card-games, or any other game of chance [SE in 20C+, the money is fig. ‘imprisoned’ while the hand is played].

1887		J.W. Keller Draw Poker 12: Widow, or Kitty—A percentage taken out of the pool to defray the expenses of the game or the cost of refreshments [DA].
1890		Sporting Times 3 May 1/4: The hand that fills us with quiet ecstasy is a flush ace, king, queen, jack, ten, with over twelve quid in the ‘Kitty!’.
1902		Ade Girl Proposition 48: [They] were out to whip-saw the Cigarette, down the Cocktail and give a lasting Ki-Bosh to the Blue Chip and the Kitty.
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl.
1936		C.R. Cooper Here’s To Crime in Hamilton Men of the Und. 216: Pari-mutuel race tracks operate on a ‘kitty’ basis.
1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 72: The nearest to the correct number winning the kitty.
1961		R.S. Close With Hooves of Brass 71: She threw her hand down and [...] flipped two shillings from the kitty.
1967		R. Conot Rivers of Blood 78: A half dozen neighbors came over to play poker, and, since she was throwing the party, she got a dime out of every kitty.
1987		‘Joe Bob Briggs’ Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In 114: Okay, the kitty’s up to $40, and so far all we have is one measly attempt by some guy at the high school.

3. (also kit) any reserve of money; or any valuable commodity.

1904		‘O. Henry’ Cabbages & Kings 15: ‘His nibs skedaddled yesterday [...] with all the coin in the kitty’.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 68: Each of these social organizations consisted principally of an Ice-Box and a Kitty.
1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 101: Will it do if we all put twenty francs into the kitty to start with?
1938		J.B. Booth Sporting Times 263: It’s the [...] everlastin’ keepin’ o’ the kitty goin’ that sickens gentlemen with racin’.
1947		C.S. Montanye ‘Frozen Stiff’ in Popular Detective Mar. 🌐 A good-looking girl for a wife, with two hundred and fifty grand in her kit.
1947		D. Davin For the Rest of Our Lives 306: I’ll bet you’d find the driver always had a bit in the kitty somewhere, a secret cache of petrol, water and rations.
1953		F. Paley Rumble on the Docks (1955) 128: Jimmy picked up the kitty of three bucks.
1959		C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 91: Suze will discover, in the course of time, that she’s bringing more into the kitty than the rag merchant.
1960		J. Brosnan Long Season 125: Anybody who doesn’t join the fight can put two bucks in the kitty.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 53: He hadn’t had a chance to chip into my comin’-home kitty.
1986		F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 251: They scraped together a kitty for hiring a car.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 314: Which at our prices could mean an extra quarter of a million quid in the kitty.
2000		Indep. Rev. 8 Mar. 7: The idea of each star placing money in a kitty implied charitable intent.
2022		G.M. Graff Watergate 56: A big part of Kalmbach’s role was safeguarding the Nixon campaign’s cash kitty.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 836: A couple called Myles and Celia Deuteron had thrown £260,000 p.a. into the kitty.