knuckle
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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.
Pronunciation
Noun
knuckle (plural knuckles)
- Any of the joints between the bones of the fingers.
- (by extension) A mechanical joint.
- (sports, billiards, snooker, pool) 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.
- 1567, Ovid, “(please specify the book number or chapter)”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, […], London: […] Willyam Seres […], →OCLC:
- 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.
- (obsolete) The joint of a plant.
- 1623, Francis Bacon, The History of Dense and Rare:
- 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
- (shipbuilding) 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
- (skiing, snowboarding) The rounded point where a flat changes to a slope on a piste.
Derived terms
With this term at the beginning
With this term at the end
Translations
joint of the finger
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Verb
knuckle (third-person singular simple present knuckles, present participle knuckling, simple past and past participle knuckled)
- (transitive) To apply pressure, or rub or massage with one's knuckles (sense 1).
- He knuckled the sleep from his eyes.
- (transitive, slang) To strike or punch.
- 2013, Lenny McLean, The Guv'nor:
- 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.
- 2014, W. Smyth, Mama OM, page 415:
- Only then I knuckled him. He had to be taught a hard lesson.
- (intransitive) To bend the fingers.
- (intransitive) To touch one's forehead as a mark of respect.
- (intransitive, figurative) To yield.
- Synonym: knuckle under
- (snowboarding, skiing) To land on the knuckle (sense 9) of a curve of a slope, after a jump off a ramp that precedes the slope.
Derived terms
Terms derived from “knuckle” as a verb
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