Definition of "kind"

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

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, stanza 1

“[…] 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. […]”

1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest‎

That in virtue of which all of his material parts are of the same kind human being is what makes those parts belong to Hook, but Hook is neither identical with his kind (the essence of human being), nor is Hook merely that which makes him a member of the kind or all his parts human (his soul).

2022, James Dominic Rooney, Material Objects in Confucian and Aristotelian Metaphysics, page 166

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.

1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter VIII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […]

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

1533, Thomas More, The second parte of the confutacion of Tyndals answere in whyche is also confuted the chyrche that Tyndale deuyseth

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

1551, Thomas Wilson, The rule of reason, conteinyng the arte of logique

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

1665, Robert Boyle, Occasional Reflections upon Several Subjects. Whereto is premis'd a Discourse about such kind of thoughts

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

2002, D. DeGrazia, Animal Rights

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

"She Moved through the Fair" (traditional Irish folk song)

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

1691, John Dryden, Prologue to King Arthur

Some ſay that Rauens foſter forlorne children, / The whilſt their owne birds famiſh in their neſts: / Oh be to me though thy hard hart ſay no, / Nothing ſo kinde but ſomething pittiful.

c. 1588–1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas Millington, […], published 1594, [Act II, scene iii]

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

1770, [Oliver] Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, a Poem, London: […] W. Griffin, […]

Thy words aſſure me of kind ſucceſſe:Go valiant Souldier, go before and chargeThe fainting army of that foolish King.

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, Act II, scene iii

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

1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, published 1635