(unit of speed): From the practice of counting the number of knots in the log-line (as it is paid out) in a standard time. Traditionally spaced at one every 1⁄120 of a mile.
A looping of a piece of string or of any other long, flexible material that cannot be untangled without passing one or both ends of the material through its loops.
Climbers must make sure that all knots are both secure and of types that will not weaken the rope.
1911, James George Frazer, chapter V, in Taboo and the Perils of the Soul (The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion; II), third edition, London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, page 310:
The obstructive tendency attributed to the knot in spiritual matters appears in a Swiss superstition that if, in sewing a corpse into its shroud, you make a knot on the thread, it will hinder the soul of the deceased on its passage to eternity.
1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost.[…], London:[…][Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker[…]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter[…]; [a]nd Matthias Walker,[…], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books:[…], London: Basil Montagu Pickering[…], 1873, →OCLC:
Flowers worthy of paradise, which, not nice art / In beds and curious knots, but nature boon / Poured forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain.
A knot can be defined as a non-self-intersecting broken line whose endpoints coincide: when such a knot is constrained to lie in a plane, then it is simply a polygon.
A difficult situation.
I got into a knot when I inadvertently insulted a policeman.
1664, Robert South, A Sermon Preached Before the University at Christ-Church, Oxon:
A man shall be perplexed with knots, and problems of business, and contrary affairs.
When preparing to tell stories at a campfire, I like to set aside a pile of pine logs with lots of knots, since they burn brighter and make dramatic pops and cracks.
Local swelling in a tissue area, especially skin, often due to injury.
Jeremy had a knot on his head where he had bumped it on the bedframe.
When, for instance, he saw a knot of the ruffians on the prairie, discussing, of course, the single topic which then occupied their minds, he would, perhaps, take his compass and one of his sons, and proceed to run an imaginary line right through the very spot on which that conclave had assembled, and when he came up to them, he would naturally pause and have some talk with them, learning their news, and, at last, all their plans perfectly; and having thus completed his real survey he would resume his imaginary one, and run on his line till he was out of sight.
At corners, under the lights, near drugstores, small knots of white, bright, chattering people showed teeth to each other, pawed each other, whistled for taxis, were whirled away in them, vanished through the doors of drugstores or into the blackness of side streets.
1968, Bryce Walton, Harpoon Gunner, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, NY, (1968), page 20,
He pushed through knots of whalemen grouped with their families and friends, and surrounded by piles of luggage.
[I]t were very fit, […] to observe carefully this previous betrothing of ourselves, ere we knit the knot that can never be loosed.
1795, Joseph Addison, “An Essay on Card-playing”, in Interesting Anecdotes, Memoirs, Allegories, Essays, and Poetical Fragments; Tending to Amuse the Fancy, and Inculcate Morality, page 67:
Indeed I would advise every ſingle lady, if poſſible, to attend her inamorato, pretty frequently at the card table;[…] if he is haſty or pettiſh with any one else in company, she may depend on the ſame fate when once the knot is tied.
In the early stages of reentry, due to the extremely-rarefied air at these altitudes, the space shuttle flew at only one to a few knots equivalent airspeed, even when its actual speed was many thousands of knots.
Since the knot won't release until the alpha has finished and can't be controlled by either party, the sex has to go on until it's done.
2017, Taylor Boulware, "Fascination/Frustration: Slash Fandom, Genre, and Queer Uptake", dissertation submitted to the University of Washington, page 155:
The pair cannot separate until the knot has subsided – anywhere from twenty minutes to hours, depending on the fic.
2017, Marianne Gunderson, "What is an omega? Rewriting sex and gender in omegaverse fanfiction", thesis submitted to the University of Oslo, page 89:
When John bites down on Sherlock's neck as his knot locks them together, the act which would otherwise be a tool for domination only reinforces the existing emotional bonds they have for each other.
For many weeks about my loins I wore / The rope that haled the buckets from the well, / Twisted as tight as I could knot the noose, / And spake not of it to a single soul, / And spake not of it to a single soul, / Until the ulcer, eating through my skin, / Betray'd my secret penance, so that all / My brethren marvell'd greatly.
She knotted her brow in concentration while attempting to unravel the tangled strands.
To unite closely; to knit together.
a.1627 (date written), Francis [Bacon], “Considerations Touching a VVarre vvith Spaine.[…]”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany VVorks of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount S. Alban.[…], London:[…] I. Hauiland for Humphrey Robinson,[…], published 1629, →OCLC:
The party of the papists in England are become more knotted, both in dependence towards Spain, and amongst themselves.