kick in

kick in idiom
  1. Contribute one's share, as in We'll kick in half if you take care of the rest. [Colloquial; c. 1900]
  2. Also, kick off. Die, as in No one knows when he'll kick in, or He finally kicked off yesterday. [Slang; first half of 1900s] Also see kick the bucket.
  3. Begin to operate, as in Finally the motor kicked in and we could get started. This usage was first recorded in 1908.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Comments
Improve this definition.
Do you have more to add? Share your linguistic knowledge or observation.
/Register to save your comments.
Related Discussions (1)
TopicRepliesLatest Post
A Kick in the Arts45 years ago

Browse Forums