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kicker

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Kicker

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From kick +‎ -er.

Noun

kicker (plural kickers)

  1. One who kicks.
  2. (sports) One who takes kicks.
    1. (American football) A placekicker: a player who kicks the football during free kicks, kick offs, field goals, and extra point tries.
  3. (nautical) The kicking strap.
  4. (nautical, informal) An outboard motor.
  5. (colloquial) An unexpected situation, detail or circumstance, often unpleasant, serving as a punchline or clincher.
    John wants to climb the wall, but the kicker is that it is thirty feet tall.
    Tuition is free; the kicker is that mandatory room and board costs twice as much as at other colleges.
    • 2016, David Zelman, If I Can, You Can: Transformation Made Easy:
      If the coffee is currently being spilled, I can't unspill it. And here's the kicker. You can't change the future, because it hasn't happened yet.
    • 2017, “Gyalchester”, in More Life, performed by Drake:
      They want me gone, wait for the kicker / Bury me now and I only get bigger
  6. (finance) An enticement for investors, e.g. warranty added to the investment contract.
  7. (poker) An unpaired card which is part of a pair, two pair, or three of a kind poker hand.
    Jill's hand was two pair, aces and sevens, with a king kicker.
  8. (journalism) Small text above a headline that indicates the topic of the story.
    • 1981, Harry W. Stonecipher, Edward C. Nicholls, Douglas A. Anderson, Electronic Age News Editing, page 104:
      Hammers are, in essence, reverse kickers. Instead of being set in smaller type like kickers, hammers are set in larger type than headlines.
  9. (journalism) The last one or two paragraphs of a story.
  10. (journalism) Synonym of lead-in (“start of photo caption”).
  11. (radio, television) A lighthearted or humorous item used to round off a news broadcast.
    • 1984, Media Report to Women, volume 12, page 46:
      […] international news and politics, and heavy on the light stuff: local news, entertainment and merry little kickers […]
    • 2013, Frank Barnas, Ted White, Broadcast News Writing, Reporting, and Producing, page 77:
      Instead, a reporter can carve out a niche as an entertainment/community reporter, thus concentrating their efforts on filing feature stories for the E block, where the kickers are slated. Kickers are feel-good pieces placed at the end of the newscast to leave viewers in a good mood […]
  12. (printing) A device that periodically displaces a newspaper from the print production line, to aid in gathering the newspapers into fixed-size bundles.
    • 1931, Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office, page 490:
      In a printing machine, the combination of a kicker mechanism for displacing a newspaper […]
  13. (sports) A launch ramp.
  14. (prison slang) The fermenting mass of fruit that is the basis of pruno, or "prison wine".
    Synonym: motor
  15. (informal) A relaxed party.
    Synonym: kickback
  16. (film, television) A backlight positioned at an angle.
    Synonym: kick
  17. (pinball) A rubber pad that propels the ball away upon impact, like a bumper, but usually a horizontal side of a wall.
  18. (performance art) A practitioner of the kicking performance art.
  19. (US, slang, archaic) A complainer.
Derived terms
Translations
journalism: Small text above a headline that indicates the topic of the story
journalism: the last paragraph or two of a story

Etymology 2

The southern-U.S. sense referring to a person derives from shitkicker, referring to a cowboy with boots used to kick away cow manure.

Noun

kicker (plural kickers)

  1. (slang, Southern US) A particular type of Texan who is associated with country/western attire, attitudes, and/or philosophy.
Translations

Anagrams

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French

Etymology 1

Compare Kicker.

Pronunciation

Noun

kicker m (uncountable)

  1. (Belgium) table football, table soccer
    Synonyms: babyfoot, baby-foot, football de table

Etymology 2

Borrowing from English kick (“to eject from an internet forum”)

Pronunciation

Verb

kicker

  1. (Internet) to kick; to eject (e.g. from a forum)
Conjugation
Conjugation of kicker (see also Appendix:French verbs)
More information infinitive, simple ...
Derived terms

Further reading

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Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from English kicker, from the group’s habit of practising kicks on, for example, lamp posts.

Noun

kicker c

  1. (historical) A member of a youth subculture that emerged in the late 1980s, while vague and without precise definition, typically characterised by branded sportswear with trousers tucked into socks and an interest in martial arts, and often associated with violence, especially kicking, possibly influenced by British casual culture.
    • 2005 February 28, Daniel Nyhlén, “Jag var med i gangstergäng”, in Aftonbladet‎, archived from the original on 4 November 2025:
      Jag var aldrig någon kickers-tjej som sökte slagsmål själv. Men flera av mina vänner deltog regelbundet i stora bråk och misshandlade människor, säger hon.
      I was never one of those kickers girls who went looking for fights myself. But several of my friends regularly took part in big brawls and assaulted people, she says.

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