English Explanatory Dictionary

knuckle

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Any of the joints between the bones of the fingers.
  2. A mechanical joint.
  3. The curved part of the cushion at the entrance to the pockets on a cue sports table.
  4. The kneejoint of a quadruped, especially of a calf; formerly, the kneejoint of a human being.
  5. A cut of meat of various kinds.
  6. The joint of a plant.
  7. A convex portion of a vessel's figure where a sudden change of shape occurs, as in a canal boat, where a nearly vertical side joins a nearly flat bottom.
  8. A contrivance, usually of brass or iron, and furnished with points, worn to protect the hand, to add force to a blow, and to disfigure the person struck; a knuckle duster.
  9. The rounded point where a flat changes to a slope on a piste.
verb
  1. To apply pressure, or rub or massage with one's knuckles (noun sense 1).
  2. To strike or punch.
  3. To bend the fingers.
  4. To touch one's forehead as a mark of respect.
  5. To yield.
  6. To land on the knuckle (noun sense 9) of a curve of a slope, after a jump off a ramp that precedes the slope.

Pronunciation

nŭkˈ-əl /ˈnʌkəl/ en-us-knuckle.ogg

Word forms

knuckle knuckles knuckling knuckled

Etymology

From Middle English knokel (“finger joint”), from Old English cnucel (“the juncture of two bones; knuckle; joint”), from Proto-West Germanic *knukil, from Proto-Germanic *knukilaz (“knuckle, knot, bump”), as *knukô (“bone, joint”) + *-ilaz (diminutive suffix). Cognate with Dutch knokkel (“knuckle”), Low German Knökel (“knuckle”), German Knöchel (“ankle, knuckle”), Old Norse knykill. More at knock.

Synonyms

knuckle under

Derived words

knuckleball knucklebone knuckleboom knucklecurve knuckleheaded knucklelike knuckler knucklesome knucklewalk knucklewalker knuckly knuckle bow knuckle-buster knuckle children knuckle dragger knuckle-dragging knuckle duster knucklehead knuckle joint knuckle sandwich knuckle-scraper knuckle-tat knuckle-walking bare-knuckle → bare-knuckle boxing brass knuckles five-knuckle shuffle fuck-knuckle interknuckle moose knuckle near the knuckle pea-knuckle → pea-knuckle war white-knuckle → white-knuckle ride knuckle down knuckle to knuckle under knuckle up
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