Kathleen Mavourneen System (n.): hire purchase. ‘“On the Kathleen Mavourneen” system (i.e. HP)’ (Anon. [L. Iver] 1957b: 4). Recorded from e.20c.; an Irish English phrase from the refrain of the song ‘Kathleen Mavourneen’: ‘It may be for years and it may be for ever’. Another term for HP was ‘on the glad and sorry’.

Kay-fisted (adj.): left-handed. ‘Kay-fisted: Left-handed’ (Lane 1966: 58). ‘Kay-fisted. Left-handed’ (Howarth 1985: n.p.). Recorded in modern use from l.19c.; found in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, written in the local dialect area in l.14c.; ‘key/kay’, ‘left’, survived in Lancashire and Cheshire dialects.

Kayley (n.): sing song; party. ‘Kayley: A sing song, or musical get-together’ (Lane 1966: 58). *NR; transliteration of the Gaelic ‘ceilidh’, ‘social gathering’.

Kaylied (adj.): drunk. ‘Verbally “lushed up”, “kali'd”, “bevvied”’ (Shaw 1962e: 6). ‘Father Murphy ‘ad been so kaylied’ (Jacques 1979: n.p.). ‘Kaylied Very, very drunk’ (Spiegl 2000b: 78). ‘“Kaylied” and “lushed as the landlord's cat” are terms for drunkenness’ (Lees 2013: 137). Recorded from e.20c.; probably from Irish ‘ceilidh’; see Kayley.

Kecks/kex (n.): trousers/underclothes. ‘Perhaps we got from Wales kecks for trousers’ (Shaw 1950b: 4). ‘Before they shit their kecks’ (Hignett 1966: 158). ‘Those at the back were laughing so much they was weeing in their best kecks’ (Bleasdale 1975: 196). ‘E's gorri's dad's kecks on!’ (Robinson 1986 [1920s–30s]: 103). ‘Juss you see me in me dago kecks’ (Simpson 1995: 24). ‘I tore the seat of my “kecks” (trousers)’ (Elliott 2006 [1940s–70s]: 36) Recorded from e.20c.; a development of e.19c. ‘kickseys’, an extension of l.17c. cant ‘kicks’, ‘breeches’.

Kekka (int.): don't! Stop! ‘Kekka mush dtherz a musker ind thee ‘aystack. Say no more, my friend, there happens to be a policeman behind you’ (Minard 1972: 55). Recorded from m.20c.; a direct borrowing from Romani ‘kekka’, ‘don't’, ‘no’.