of a kind—(also: of a sort)
1. of poor quality; not fully deserving the name:
- He regards himself, I think, as an artist of a kind.
2. of the description mentioned:
- In his psychiatric practice Peck encountered people of a kind that psychiatry had yet to define.
3. (in the phrase “two of a kind”) of the same class, nature, or character:
- David and Catherine were two of a kind, both fascinated with the social world and social climbing.
Note: The expression does not correlate in meaning with the phrase kind of, a—(also: sort of, a) smth. like; resembling smth.:
- Living polyps form a kind of skin over the surface of the coral reef.
of the kind—(also: of the sort) = of a kind 2:
- My chair-car was profitably well filled with people of the kind one usually sees on chair-cars.