kind

noun

1. A type, race or category; a group of entities that have common characteristics such that they may be grouped together.

   “What kind of (a) person are you?”

   “This is a strange kind of tobacco.”

   “What kind of ice-cream would you like? There's chocolate, strawberry, and lemon.”

   “How diversely Love doth his pageants play, / And shews his powre in variable kinds !”

   ““[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer. […]””

2. A makeshift or otherwise atypical specimen.

   “The opening served as a kind of window.”

   “I got my traps out of the canoe and made me a nice camp in the thick woods. I made a kind of a tent out of my blankets to put my things under so the rain couldn't get at them.”

3. (archaic)One's inherent nature; character, natural disposition.

   “Must yt nedes folowe that theyr fayth was chaunged in kynde, bycause yt was augmented in degrees.”

   “The generall woorde, is spoken of many, that differ either in kynd, or els in nombre.”

   “'Tis all one..whether our Afflictions be the same with those of others, in Kind, or not Superiour to them in Degree.”

   “He also argued powerfully, if less influentially, that animals' and humans' capacities differ largely in degree and not in kind.”

4. (archaic)Family, lineage.

   “My young love said to me, My mother won’t mind And my father won’t slight you for your lack of kind.”

5. (archaic)Manner.
6. Goods or services used as payment, as e.g. in barter.

   “in kind”

   “I don't have any money but I can pay in kind by washing the dishes.”

   “Some of you, on pure instinct of nature, / Are led by kind t'admire your fellow-creature.”

7. Equivalent means used as response to an action.

   “in kind”

   “I'll pay in kind for his insult.”

8. Each of the two elements of the communion service, bread and wine.
9. The type of a type constructor or a higher-order type operator.

   “The kind of any primitive data type is *, corresponding to a nullary constructor.”

10. (Caribbean, in-compounds)Food in a particular category.

    “Fish kind was what she ate then.”

    “The farmers had plenty of ground provisions, but there was no "meat kind."”

    “They can be served with fried fish, chicken, ackee and salt fish or other meat kind, as well as eaten separately as a treat.”

adj

1. Having a benevolent, courteous, friendly, generous, gentle, liberal, sympathetic, or warm-hearted nature or disposition, marked by consideration for – and service to – others.

   “Some ſay that Rauens foſter forlorne children, / The vvhilſt their ovvne birds famiſh in their neſts: / Oh be to me though thy hard hart ſay no, / Nothing ſo kinde but ſomething pittifull.”

2. Affectionate.

   “a kind man; a kind heart”

   “Yet was he kind, or if severe in aught, / The love he bore to learning was in fault.”

3. Favorable.

   “Thy words aſſure me of kind ſucceſſe: / Go valiant Souldier, go before and charge / The fainting army of that foolish King.”

4. Mild, gentle, forgiving

   “The years have been kind to Richard Gere; he ages well.”

5. Gentle; tractable; easily governed.

   “a horse kind in harness”

6. (obsolete)Characteristic of the species; belonging to one's nature; natural; native.

   “it becommeth sweeter than it should be, and loseth the kind tast.”