knuckle

Meanings

Noun

• Any of the joints between the phalanges of the fingers.
• A mechanical joint.
• A cut of meat.
• 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 used of the kneejoint of a human being.
• The joint of a plant.
• 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.
• The rounded point where a flat changes to a slope on a piste.

Verb

• To apply pressure, or rub or massage with one's knuckles.
• To bend the fingers.
• To touch one's forehead as a mark of respect.
• To yield.

Origin

• 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 + *-ilaz. Cognate with Dutch knokkel ("knuckle"), Low German Knökel ("knuckle"), German Knöchel ("ankle, knuckle"), Old Norse knykill.