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klick
DCHP-3 (Mar 2023)
Spelling variants:click
n. — Informal, Transportation
a kilometre.
Type: 5. Frequency — This informal variant of kilometre has been in use since the second half of the 20th century. It gained traction in the mainstream Canadian lexicon after national adoption of the metric system in 1975. As Chart 1 shows, the term is Canadian in the North American context by virtue of frequency.
In its infancy, it was sometimes spelled click (see the 1976 quotation), sometimes klick (see the 1988 quotation), but it seems to have settled in the klick spelling (see the 1992, 2012 or 2020 quotations), likely to disambiguate it from the many unrelated definitions of the word click.
It may be derived from an American neologism dating from the Vietnam War (see COD-2).
In its infancy, it was sometimes spelled click (see the 1976 quotation), sometimes klick (see the 1988 quotation), but it seems to have settled in the klick spelling (see the 1992, 2012 or 2020 quotations), likely to disambiguate it from the many unrelated definitions of the word click.
It may be derived from an American neologism dating from the Vietnam War (see COD-2).
See: K (initialism)
K is the more formal variant of klick.
Quotations
1976
Before long, the motorist who inquires how far it is to Toronto will be told it is 264 “clicks” and he will know by that answer that it is 264 kilometres, or approximately 175 miles. Clicks are already the vogue with our forces in Europe, and soldiers back from our depots in Larh and Baden-Soligen in West Germany have already caught on to the habit.
1988
Cross-country skiers aren't forgotten. There's a complete Nordic centre with some 20 km (12 mi.) of track-set trails and as much off- piste skiing as you can handle. You can ski right into B.C. a few klicks away. But, before wandering too far, remember that this is Banff National Park, which aside from scenery is known for its wildlife, including bears.
1992
Traffic was backed up for at least a couple of klicks in the left- hand-turn lane off Taschereau. There was at least one accident serious enough to bring out an ambulance, and the private security guards hired to direct traffic in the massive parking lot had their hands full. There was not a square foot of extra parking space in sight.
2006
"DC" -- that's short for, er, Deaf Cat -- vanished last month from his home at Bondi Beach in Sydney. Two weeks later, he turned up at St. Kilda Beach in Melbourne, 850 kilometres away. That's like going from Edmonton to Regina, then for another 100 klicks after that.
2012
Although it has more than 240,000 klicks on the clock, it was clearly not used for work, in fact the previous owner, David Rose, had a baby seat anchored in the back and primarily used the truck to pull his travel trailer. By all accounts he was the second owner, but it looks like the original owner didn't use it as a work truck either.
2020
To summarize: If most of your driving is local and you have a convenient home charging station, or if you've the patience of Job and don't mind turtling down the highway, stopping for 30 minutes whenever you do need more electrons, then by all means, an EV is perfect for you. But if you're a true road warrior and a significant portion of your annual mileage is spent banging out big klicks at equally big speeds, then you might want to look to something more traditional.
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