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knuckle

Pronunciation: /ˈnʌkəl/

The English word “knuckle” has 15 meanings listed here.

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.

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.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.