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KNUCKLE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A joint of a finger when the fist is closed
Synonyms:
knuckle; knuckle joint; metacarpophalangeal joint
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("knuckle" is a kind of...):
articulatio synovialis; diarthrosis; synovial joint (a joint so articulated as to move freely)
Holonyms ("knuckle" is a part of...):
finger (any of the terminal members of the hand (sometimes excepting the thumb))
Derivation:
knuckle (press or rub with the knuckles)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Shoot a marble while keeping one's knuckles on the ground
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "knuckle" is one way to...):
shoot (throw or propel in a specific direction or towards a specific objective)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s
Sense 2
Meaning:
Press or rub with the knuckles
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "knuckle" is one way to...):
press (exert pressure or force to or upon)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Derivation:
knuckle (a joint of a finger when the fist is closed)
Context examples:
When I was as old as you, I was a feeling fellow enough, partial to the unfledged, unfostered, and unlucky; but Fortune has knocked me about since: she has even kneaded me with her knuckles, and now I flatter myself I am hard and tough as an India-rubber ball; pervious, though, through a chink or two still, and with one sentient point in the middle of the lump.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
The knuckles were skinned and inflamed clear across, the fingers swollen, the nails rimmed with black.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
"Hold up yer hand!" he screamed. "Them's brass knuckles, an' you hit me with 'em!"
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
I snatched a cutlass from the pile, and someone, at the same time snatching another, gave me a cut across the knuckles which I hardly felt.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
He flew at me with his knife, and I had to grasp him twice, and got a cut over the knuckles, before I had the upper hand of him.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Thornton rapped Hal’s knuckles with the axe-handle, knocking the knife to the ground.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
Sometimes I see the butcher, bloody but confident; sometimes I see nothing, and sit gasping on my second's knee; sometimes I go in at the butcher madly, and cut my knuckles open against his face, without appearing to discompose him at all.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I had indeed levelled at that prominent feature as hard a blow as my knuckles could inflict; and when I saw that either that or my look daunted him, I had the greatest inclination to follow up my advantage to purpose; but he was already with his mama.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
So I stood, with hesitant knuckle, without her door.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
No bare knuckle had done that.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
