Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a number of things or persons viewed as a whole, a set, a lot, a collection.

1815		(con. 18C) Sir W. Scott Guy Mannering (1999) 191: ‘Why, will ye give me half the kitt?’ ‘What, half the estate?’.
1820		Shelley Oedipus Tyrannus i: Now, Soloman, I’d sell you in a lump the whole kit of them [F&H].
1843–4		Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit (1995) 415: I see ’em, [...] all the whole kit of ’em numbered like hackney-coaches, ain’t they?
1861		Dickens Great Expectations (1992) 313: I’ll show you a better gentleman than the whole kit on you put together!
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.

2. clothing [SE kit, the uniforms used for various sports; phr. widely popularized by the spread of 1990s ‘lad culture’ and the magazines that pander to it].

1818		‘A. Burton’ Adventures of Johnny Newcome I 34: First to the Boat, John’s ‘kit’ they sent.
1834		Marryat Peter Simple (1911) 101: I hardly need say that my lord’s kit was valuable; and, what was better, they exactly fitted me.
1890		Kipling ‘The Story of the Gadbsys’ in Soldiers Three (1907) 164: Up with you! Get into your kit.
1905		E.W. Hornung A Thief in the Night (1992) 317: God bless me if the brazen wench hasn’t squeezed into the wife’s kit!
1925		Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer 379: I’ll run up and fetch my kit.
1937		P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 15: If the rest of her kit was on the same level, well, she was an eyeful any time.
1976		J. Braine Waiting for Sheila (1977) 31: Their clothes are laundered and regularly dry-cleaned and they wouldn’t be seen dead in dirty second-hand trendy kit.
1986		J. Campbell Gate Fever 17: The orderlies can watch cricket and tennis during the idle moments between fetching cups of tea and kit for new arrivals.
1998		Observer 27 Dec. 32: Inebriated young people from Salford taking their kit off in Ibiza.
2005		P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 157: Why don’t you get people to sponsor you to leave your focking kit on.
2013		Llanellie Life 8 Feb. 🌐 A stand-in male stripper has been arrested for allegedly attacking disappointed women [...] ‘He just wasn’t the sort of person you wanted to see take their kit off’.
2016		N. Cummins Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] The old bloke was trying to console her and get his kit on at the same time.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 719: ‘Ms Skye has not lost her eagerness to get her kit off so long as it’s valid within the context of the script’.

3. (US) money.

1842

Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 10 Sept. n.p.: There is lots of ‘kit’ ready to be up on this favourite’s winning the first heat .

4. the penis and testes.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1993		S. Heaney Midnight Verdict 32: With all his kit of tools about him.

5. (drugs) the equipment, such as a syringe or a spoon, required for injection of a narcotic.

1927		D. Hammett ‘$106,000 Blood Money’ Story Omnibus (1966) 332: The police found [...] a quantity of morphine, with a needle and the rest of the kit.
1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970) 137: kit Equipment for injecting drugs; usually a hypodermic needle, eyedropper, cotton, bottle cap or spoon, water, and a strap to use as a tourniquet to distend the vein.
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 82: Kit All the necessary utensils needed to use drugs intravenously. This includes a small spoon, used to mix, liquefy and cook (when needed) the drug; cotton, used to filter the liquid when drawing it into the syringe; a needle and syringe and some type of tie-off such as a belt or boot lace used as a tourniquet.
2001		(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 125: Taking out her kit, [she] starts mixing a hit as she’s talking.

6. in (US Und.) use.

7. (drugs) drugs, in the context of dealing.

2000

J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 17: In a matter of weeks we had our money tripled and we were running kit all over London.

8. see kitty n.¹ (3)