kick-back, kickback orig. U.S. colloq.
(ˈkɪkbæk)
[f. phr. to kick back (kick v.1 II).]
a. A refund, a rebate; the return of money, goods, etc.; a payment (usu. illegal) made to a person who has made possible or facilitated a transaction, appointment, etc. Also attrib.
| 1932 Editor 6 Feb. 112/2 Kick-back, a return of money. 1934 [see kick back b s.v. kick v.1 II]. 1934 Sun (Baltimore) 24 Jan. 1/3 The ‘kick-back’ system of cutting PWA workers' pay. Ibid. 1 Feb. 1/5 These ‘kickbacks’ were described as levies amounting to from $15 to $25 a week on the musician's salary. 1935 N. Ersine Underworld & Prison Slang 49 Kickback, loot that must be returned to avoid arrest. ‘They took a grand off the hoosiers, but they had to make a kickback when the marks beefed.’ 1939 Ibid. 13 Feb. 16/5, 150,000 persons and companies throughout nation get ‘kickback’... Several hundred Maryland Corporations and individuals received tax refunds during the last fiscal year. 1940 F. Riesenberg Golden Gate 308 Longshoremen were finding it tougher than ever to get jobs, even through kick-backs of pay, bottles of liquor, and cigars. 1958 M. Dickens Man Overboard xiv. 218 With Mr Pearse and his little kick⁓backs out of the picture, the food budget was reduced. 1959 Listener 3 Dec. 960/1 A number of employers were prepared to offer bribes, pay ‘kickbacks’. 1971 Courier Mail (Brisbane) 8 Mar. 4/7 The [U.S. official tax] guide says: ‘Bribes and kickbacks (a form of bribe) to non-government officials are deductible.’ 1972 Daily Tel. 19 June 10/5 The promoter claims that another member of the committee approached him demanding a kick-back on the profits and, after he had refused this proposal, the permit was somehow no longer forthcoming. |
b. A strong reaction or repercussion; an undesirable result.
| 1935 M. M. Atwater Murder in Midsummer xxii. 210 His bluster was the kick-back of his strained nerves. 1940 Amer. Speech XV. 64 This kickback of the idea into the word, wherein..the word is..vested with unusual suggestive power. 1953 Wodehouse Performing Flea 177 The feeling that he showed a lack of public spirit in getting away and leaving us to receive the kick-back. 1954 R. Knox Retreat for Lay People xiv. 140 Even as a matter of psychology, isn't it probable that all this negative business has a kick-back which is bad for us? 1965 Listener 6 May 658/1 We can over-mechanize it [sc. education]. One of the kick-backs of this is the University of California situation, over-planning, the over-administering of education. |
c. Railways. A device whereby the direction of wagons, etc., can be reversed.
| 1947 Richmond (Virginia) Times Dispatch 1 Apr. 6/1 The empty [coal] car is then kicked off the dumper by the next loaded car, rolls by gravity to a high ‘kickback’ at the outshore end of the pier and thence by gravity to the yard for empty cars. 1962 Times 26 Oct. (Spencer Steelworks Suppl.) p. xviii/2 The gravity operated kick⁓back which reverses the wagon's direction. |
d. In timber preservation (see quots.).
| 1947 N.Z. Timber Jrnl. Sept. 61/2 Kick back (wood preservative), surplus antiseptic released from the wood when pressure is withdrawn after impregnation. 1968 Gloss. Terms Timber Preservation (B.S.I.) 21 Kickback, the amount of preservative forced out of the timber when pressure is released. |