a club of Whig wits, painters, politicians, and men of letters, including Robert Walpole, John Vanbrugh, William Congreve, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, and Godfrey Kneller, that flourished in London between 1703 and 1720.
Origin: from Kit (as short for Christopher) Cat(ling), alleged to be the keeper of a pie-house where the club met (with play on kit-cat, var. of tipcat; see kit3, cat1)
[kit-kat] 
