Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(UK Und.) a child who has been brought up to thieving as a profession.

c.1561		Awdeley Fraternitye of Vacabondes in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 5: A Kitchin Co is called an ydle runagate Boy.
c.1566		Harman Caveat for Common Cursetours in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 76: A Kynchen Co is a young boye [...] that when he groweth vnto yeres, he is better to hang then to drawe forth.
1592		Groundworke of Conny-catching n.p.: [as cit. c.1566].
1608		Dekker Belman’s Second Nights Walk B3: They take vpon them the names of Kinchin Coes, till they are growne Rufflers, or Vpright-men.
1669		W. Winstanley New Help To Discourse 134: Kynchin-Coes, are little boys whose parents (having been Beggars) are dead, or else such as have run away from their Masters, and instead of a Trade to live by, follow this kind of life [...] the onley thing they practice, is to creep in at Windows or Cellar-doors.
1674		Head Canting Academy (2nd edn) 59: [as cit. 1669] .
1688		R. Holme Academy of Armory Ch. iii item 68b: Give me leave to give you the names (as in their Canting Language they call themselves) of all (or most of such) as follow the Vagabond Trade, according to their Regiments or Divisions, as [...] Kitching-coes, little Rogues that first enter the Society.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Kinchin-coes c. the Sixteenth Rank of the Canting Tribe, being little Children whose Parents are Dead, having been Beggers, kinchin-coes also young Ladds running from their Masters, who are first taught Canting, then thieving.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1834		(con. 1737–9) W.H. Ainsworth Rookwood (1857) 163: Kinching morts, and their coes, with all the shades and grades of the Canting Crew, were assembled.

1. a little man.

1637		Dekker ‘Canting Song’ in Eng. Villainies (8th edn) O3: Now my Kinchen cove is gone By the Rumpad maunded none.
1648		Dekker ‘Canters Dict.’ Eng. Villainies (9th edn).
1665		Head Eng. Rogue I 50: Kinchin Cove, A little man.
a.1674		‘A Wenches complaint for . . . her lusty Rogue’ Head Canting Academy (1674) 16: [as cit. 1637].
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Kinchin-cove A little Man.
1707		J. Shirley Triumph of Wit 198: [as cit. 1637].
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 207: Kinchen-cove, a little man.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict. 15: A little Man – Kinchen-cove.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Kinchin Cove, a little man. Cant.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1822		Life and Trial of James Mackcoull 40: He had got an Indorsation from a Kenchin-cove [sic] in Edinburgh, who laid Cain on Abel so smartly, that he lost his balance.
1830		Lytton Paul Clifford I 68: ‘Look you, my kinchin cove,’ said she.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 56: KINCHIN-COVE, a man who robs children; a little man. Ancient cant.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859].

2. a child brought up as a thief.

1741		Canting Academy, or the Pedlar’s-French Dict. 113: Boy A Kinchen Cove.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1848		Ladies’ Repository (N.Y.) Oct. VIII:37 316/2: Kinchen Cove, or Prig, A young thief.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1871–82		B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 42: Kinchin Coves, boys taught how to steal.

3. a man who steals children for gypsies, beggars, etc.

a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: kinchin cove a fellow who procures, or steals children for beggars, gipsies, &c.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1859		see sense 1.
1864, 1867, 1870		see sense 1.
1873		Sl. Dict.

1. street stealing from children.

1838		Dickens Oliver Twist (1966) 386: ‘The kinchin lay’ [...] ‘The kinchins, my dear,’ said Fagin, ’is the young children that’s sent on errands by their mothers, with sixpences and shillings; and the lay is just to take their money away.’.
1848		Ladies’ Repository (N.Y.) Oct. VIII:37 316/2: Kinchen Lay, To go on an expedition for the purpose of robbing children sent on errands with money or any valuable article.
1850		Fast Man 9:1 n.p.: [C]ertain thieves, who, not having sufficient tact to pick pockets scientifically, go out on the kinchin lay.
1862		Glasgow Herald 1 Nov. 2/4: The kinchin lay [...] consists in catching small children sent on errands with the money ready in their hands.
1871		Standard 13 Sept. n.p.: The prisoner is an adept at the kinchin-lay, a term known to the initiated for robbing children [F&H].
1881		Illus. Police News 5 Feb. 4/3: A Ticket-of-Leave Man on the ‘Kinchin Lay’ [...] Hopkins [...] was charged with robbing children of portions of their clothing in the public streets.
1882		A. Trumble Crooked Life in Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 24 June 6/1: [T]he ‘kinchin lay’ [...] consists | simply In robbing children who are sent on errands [...] of the little money they carry.
1887		J.W. Horsley Jottings from Jail 89: A damsel, aged 16 [...] following the footsteps of Noah Claypole on the kinchin lay.
1895		Sheffield Eve. Teleg. 27 May 3/2: ‘The Kinchin Lay’. A Warning to parents [...] In this case the man took a sovereign from the boy’s hand.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 42: Kinchin Lay, robbing children.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 10 Apr. 2/5: Praps he’s on a kinchin lay, / Or galley shovin’ game.
1906		E. Pugh Spoilers 66: Never doin’ no honest work out o’ quod from the time when they was [...] nickin the baby milk to when their poor ole shakin’ legs got them lagged on the kinchin lay.
1909		Age (Queanbeyan, NSW) 12 Jan. 2/6: Supposing any one of us was to get lumbered and flopped into that match box clink and a fire was to burst out, you can bet your sweet life that the lovely John Hopper and his missus and the kinchins would do a Carrington and leave the poor philgarlick in the booby hatch to frizzle.
1935		R.T. Hopkins Life and Death at the Old Bailey 62: The following crook’s words and phrases date from the days of the old Old Bailey: [...] a man who robs children – a kinchin cove.

2. in fig. use, i.e. devoting oneself to the topic of children.

1885

Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Mar. 22/1: Nor is Mrs. Gladstone less ‘in touch’ with the populace than her ‘Grand Old Man.’ Like Noah Claypole, the Premier’s indefatigable spouse […] devotes herself to ‘the kinchin lay’ – the kids and the woman.

1. a beggar’s child, or any child carried by a beggar in order to excite pity.

c.1566		Harman Caveat for Common Cursetours in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 76: A kinching Mort is a little Girle, the Morts their Mothers carries them at their backes in their slates, which is their sheetes, and bryngs them vp sauagely tyll they growe to be ripe, and soone ripe, soone rotten.
1592		Groundworke of Conny-catching [as cit. c.1566].
1608		Dekker Belman of London D3: Kinching Morts [...] are girles of a yeare or two old, which the Morts (their mothers) carry at their backes in their Slates (which in the Canting tongue are sheetes).
1611		Middleton & Dekker Roaring Girle V i: I have, by the salomon, a doxy that carries a kitchin mort in her slate at her back.
1669		W. Winstanley New Help To Discourse 136: [as cit. 1608].
1674		Head Canting Academy (2nd edn) 63: [as cit. 1608].
1688		R. Holme Academy of Armory Ch. iii item 68b: Give me leave to give you the names (as in their Canting Language they call themselves) of all (or most of such) as follow the Vagabond Trade, according to their Regiments or Divisions, as [...] Kitchen Morts, little young Queans.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Kinchin-morts c. the Twenty seventh and last Order of the Canting Crew, being Girls of a Year or two old, whom the Morts (their Mothers) carry at their Backs in Slates (Sheets) and if they have no Children of their own, they borrow or Steal them from others.
1707		J. Shirley Triumph of Wit 185: The Kinchin-morts are the little Girls that run in the Hand of these Gypsies and Beggars, or are carried at their Backs in Blankets.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant n.p.: king’s motts female children carried on the backs of strollers and beggars, in order to claim the attention of the public, and excite their pity.
1815		(con. 18C) W. Scott Guy Mannering (1999) 148: The times are sair altered since I was a kinchin-mort.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. [as cit. 1809].
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open 113: King’s mots, female children carried on the backs of strollers and beggars to excite the pity of the public.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1901		Argus (Melbourne) 20 Sept. 6/4: The kinchen morts were little girls educated to steal.

2. a young, virgin girl, destined to be a prostitute or beggar’s companion.

c.1561		Awdeley Fraternitye of Vacabondes in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 5: A Kitchin Mortes is a Gyrle, she is brought at her full age to the Vpryght man to be broken, and so she is called a Doxy, vntil she come to ye honor of an Altham.
1665		Head Eng. Rogue.
1741		Canting Academy, or the Pedlar’s-French Dict. 113: Girl A Kinchin Mort.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1834		(con. 1737–9) W.H. Ainsworth Rookwood (1857) 163: Doxies, kinching morts, and their coes, with all the shades and grades of the Canting Crew, were assembled.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 42: Kinchin Morts, girls taught how to steal.
1906		A. McCormick Tinkler-Gypsies of Galloway 104: The following words appear to be still in use in one form or another amongst Galwegian tinkler-gypsies – Kitchen-mort – A girl (?kinchen-mort).

(UK Und.) a young thief.

1848		Ladies’ Repository (N.Y.) Oct. VIII:37 316/2: Kinchen Cove, or Prig, A young thief.
1877		London Standard 22 Feb. 3/5: There were area sneaks, pickpockets, ‘kinchin-prigs’ and cross-coves.