knuckle

nounverbattested in dialogue

//ˈnʌkəl//

Any of the joints between the bones of the fingers.

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.
With wearie knockles on thy brim she kneeled sadly downe
5
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.
6
obsoleteThe 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
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.
brass knuckles
9
The rounded point where a flat changes to a slope on a piste.

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.

verb

1
To apply pressure, or rub or massage with one's knuckles (noun sense 1).
He knuckled the sleep from his eyes.
She knuckled her eyes in disbelief.
2
slangTo 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.
3
To bend the fingers.
4
To touch one's forehead as a mark of respect.
5
figurativeTo 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.

Forms

plural: knuckles
past tense: knuckled
past participle: knuckled
present participle: knuckling
third person singular: knuckles

known · Identified as a specific type; famous, renowned.knows · All persons, singular and plural, present form of know.Knox · A Scottish surname from Scottish Gaelic.

knuckle · Any of the joints between the bones of the fingers.

Knuckles · A nickname for a man employed for his fistfighting skill.ko · A local shape to which the ko rule applies; a ko shape.Ko · Synonym of Fungor (“language of Sudan”).

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.