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kitcat

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kit-cat

[kit-kat]
–noun
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, measure almost uniformly 28 × 36 in. (71 × 91 cm), characteristically portray the head, upper torso, and hands, and are now in the National Gallery, London.
Also, kit-kat.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Word Origin & History

kit-cat 
club founded by Whig politicians in London, 1703; so called from Christopher ("Kit") Catling, keeper of the tavern on Shire Lane, near Temple Bar, in which the club first met. As a designation for "a size of portrait less than half length" (1754), supposedly because the dining room in which portraits of club members hung was too low for half-length portraits.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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