kit-cat

American  

[kit-kat] / ˈkɪtˌkæt /

Or kit-kat

noun

1. any of a series of half-length portraits of members of the Kit-Cat Club that were painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller between 1702 and 1717, measuring almost uniformly 28 × 36 inches (71 × 91 centimeters), characteristically portray the head, upper torso, and hands, and are now in the National Gallery, London.

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Example Sentences

Here is a kit-cat of Lord Albemarle, then ambassador in Paris.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 61, No. 376, February, 1847 by Various

The size is a sort of oval kit-cat, not large.

From The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton Volume I by Barrington, Mrs. Russell

The portraits of most of the members of this society were painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller, of one size; thence still called the kit-cat size.

From 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Grose, Francis

Cromwell Olivier, kit-cat the size of life, a Portrait of the finest carnation, who shews of a perfect likeness and verity, school of Vandyk, perhaps by himself.

From A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Volume Three by Dibdin, Thomas Frognall

His prices until he went to London were certainly not high: two guineas for a three-quarter portrait and six for a whole figure on a kit-cat canvas.

From Art in England Notes and Studies by Cook, Dutton