kicker

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɪkɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪkə(r)

kick +‎ -er

kicker (plural kickers)

1. One who kicks.
2. (sports) One who takes kicks.
3. (nautical) The kicking strap.
4. (nautical, informal) An outboard motor.
5. (colloquial) An unexpected situation, detail or circumstance, often unpleasant.

   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.

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.
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".

• knee kicker

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

kicker (plural kickers)

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

• rekick

• IPA^(key): /ki.kœʁ/

kicker m (uncountable)

1. (Belgium) table football, table soccer

• babyfoot
• baby-foot
• football de table

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

• IPA^(key): /ki.ke/

kicker

1. (Internet) to kick; to eject (e.g. from a forum)

• “kicker” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).