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keen:  (adj.)  finely sharpened; having a quick wit; acutely sensitive.  That was peachy keen of you to have such a keen knife to slice the fruit with.

keening:  (verb)  the act of wailing in grief, usually for the dead, and usually loudly.  Keening because you burnt the toast is a bit... much.

kempt:  (adj.)  well cared for; maintained in a neat and clean manor.  My, Larry, you look particularly kempt this evening.  Are you going out?

kerfuffle:  (noun)  disturbance; fuss.  Leon caused quite the kerfuffle by bringing a canary to the cat show.

kibble:  (noun)  ground meal shaped into pellets, especially for pet food.  When I was a puppy, all we had was kibble, and we were glad to get it, by gum!

kibosh:  (verb)  to check; to stop; to put an end to.  Laura put a kibosh on his plans to spend the night.

killjoy:  (noun)  a person who deliberately ruins the fun of others by being a prig; a pedant; a stuffed-shirt.  Don't be such a killjoy.  We weren't really going to kill Joy, just give her a good scare.

kilter:  (adj.)  how things usually are; proper order.  You may think my thoughts are off kilter, but I can assure you, my kilter is doing just fine.

kine:  (noun)  cattle; really good weed.  The kine ate the kine, and now they're feeling fine.

king's-evil:  (noun)  scrofula, once believed to be curable by the king's divine touch.  Well, Bob, you've got the king's-evil, which is only curable by being touched by the evil king.  Fat chance of that.

kip:  (noun)  nap; bed.  We were ready for a kip after a long day traveling.

kipper:  (verb) to cure a fish (usually a herring) by splitting it open, salting it, and then letting it dry out, often over smoke.  (noun)  anything that’s been kippered.  It’s really a bad idea to kipper the cat.

kismet:  (noun)  fortune; destiny; luck; doom.  Whereas karma means, “What goes around comes around,” with kismet, it doesn’t even have to go around to kick your ass.

klatch:  (noun)  a social gathering, especially for coffee and conversation.  Frankly, the coffee here is awful, but I do enjoy the klatch.

kleptocracy:  (noun)  government by those seeking personal gain at the expense of the governed.  The biggest trick of a kleptocracy is convincing the poor and downtrodden that by supporting those in power, who are only interested in helping themselves by taking advantage of the poor and downtrodden, that somehow they are improving their own lives.

knacker:  (verb)  to tire you or someone else out; to severely damage something.  There's why the car won't start.  The engine's all knackered.

knocking shop:  (noun)  mostly British – a place where men pay to have sex with prostitutes; a brothel.  Saying you’ve been at the knocking shop sounds a whole lot less salacious than being with a hooker.

kopje:  (noun) (pronounced:  copy)  a small hill in a generally flat area.  The hills all look the same, as if they are copies of kopjes.

kowtow:  (verb)  to play the game; to obey the rules; to do the accepted thing.  Before one agrees to kowtow, one should know the price of her or his soul.

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