An informal unit of force, sometimes used by engineers to express the amount of weight borne by a structure. One kip equals 1000 pounds (453.59 kilograms) of force or about 4.4482 kilonewtons. The name of the unit is an abbreviation of "kilopound."
Russ Rowlett (Director), How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement, Center for Mathematics and Science Education University of North Carolina, USA 2005. http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictA.html, (Unit of Meas and Covr Factors - Amer) {608}