kicker
/ˈkɪkɚ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.41 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
One who kicks.
noun
The kicking strap.
noun
An unexpected situation, detail or circumstance, often unpleasant, serving as a punchline or clincher.
Colloquial
noun
An enticement for investors, e.g. warranty added to the investment contract.
noun
An unpaired card which is part of a pair, two pair, or three of a kind poker hand.
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "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."
- "They want me gone, wait for the kicker / Bury me now and I only get bigger"
- "Jill's hand was two pair, aces and sevens, with a king kicker."
- "Hammers are, in essence, reverse kickers. Instead of being set in smaller type like kickers, hammers are set in larger type than headlines."
Etymology
From kick + -er.
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈkɪkɚ/
- British English: /ˈkɪkə/
Usage
- Informal
- Colloquial
- Slang
- American usage
- Archaic