kick in

See also: kickin'

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

kick in (third-person singular simple present kicks in, present participle kicking in, simple past and past participle kicked in)

1. To kick; to collapse or break by kicking
   1. (transitive) To kick or strike so as to cause the object struck to collapse or fall inwards.

      Upon hearing residents in the burning house, the passerby kicked in the front door and yelled to those inside.

   2. (transitive, slang) To kick or strike (a person); to beat up
2. To begin, contribute or join in on
   1. (intransitive, idiomatic) To start, connect, or take effect, especially in a sudden way; to begin functioning.
      • 2013, Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Before Midnight (motion picture), Julie Delpy (actor):

        People expect women [when they give birth] to have this instinct that kicks in.

      • 2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 289:

        Once the wet kicks in up north, you can be stranded for months waiting for swollen rivers to subside to a crossable depth[.]

      You have to push the switch hard to get the heater to kick in.

      I took my medication an hour ago, and it hasn't kicked in yet.

   2. (slang) To join or begin.

      You should kick in on the work.

      The rhythm section will kick in after that point.

   3. (transitive and intransitive, idiomatic) To contribute, especially to a collection of money; to hand over.

      For the year-end party, we're asking each employee to kick in twenty dollars.

      This is a worthy charity, so everyone should kick in.

3. (idiomatic) To die; to give up on something.

   The business is going to kick in most likely.

Translations

To kick or strike so as to cause the object struck to collapse or fall inwards

• Finnish: potkaista sisään
• Russian: вышиба́ть (ru) (vyšibátʹ)

To start or connect suddenly

• Finnish: alkaa vaikuttaa (start to have an effect), alkaa käydä (start, of a machine etc.)
• Russian: (неожи́данно (ru) (neožídanno)) включаться (ru) (vključatʹsja), подключаться (ru) (podključatʹsja)

To contribute, especially to a collection of money

• Finnish: lahjoittaa (fi), kaivaa kuvetta
• Russian: вноси́ть (ru) (vnosítʹ) долю (ru) f (dolju)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Romanian: a porni(1), a lovi, a darama(2)

See also

• kick in the pants