Brewer's: Kite

(A), in legal phraseology, is a junior counsel who is allotted at an assize court to advocate the cause of a prisoner who is without other defence. For this service he receives a guinea as his honorarium. A kite on Stock Exchange means a worthless bill. An honorarium given to a barrister is in reality a mere kite. (See below, Kite-Flying.)

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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