knuckle
noun
- joint located in the fingers
verb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L332104 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈnʌkəl/
noun
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.
- Any of the joints between the bones of the fingers.
- A mechanical joint.
- The curved part of the cushion at the entrance to the pockets on a cue sports table.
- The kneejoint of a quadruped, especially of a calf; formerly, the kneejoint of a human being.
“With wearie knockles on thy brim she kneeled sadly downe”
- A cut of meat of various kinds.
“Beef knuckle is from the knee joint. Pork knuckle, or ham hock, is from the joint between the tibia/fibula and the metatarsals of the foot of a pig, where the foot was attached to the leg.”
- The joint of a plant.
“In the West Indies there are found, even in sandy deserts and very dry places, large canes, which at every joint or knuckle yield a good supply of fresh water”
- 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.
- 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.
“brass knuckles”
- The rounded point where a flat changes to a slope on a piste.
verb
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.
- To apply pressure, or rub or massage with one's knuckles (noun sense 1).
“He knuckled the sleep from his eyes.”
- To strike or punch.
“I could feel my big toe snap, but as he's gone down on his good knee and half swung round I knuckled him in the kidney as hard as I could hit. He's gone all the way down, so I dropped my 19 stone into the middle of his back.”
“Only then I knuckled him. He had to be taught a hard lesson.”
- To bend the fingers.
- To touch one's forehead as a mark of respect.
- To yield.
- To land on the knuckle (noun sense 9) of a curve of a slope, after a jump off a ramp that precedes the slope.