Link Centre Dictionary

knot

UK/nɒt/ US/nɑt/ fairly common slang
noun (7) verb (3)

noun

1.

a tight cluster of people or things

  • “a small knot of women listened to his sermon”
2.

any of various fastenings formed by looping and tying a rope (or cord) upon itself or to another rope or to another object

3.

a hard cross-grained round piece of wood in a board where a branch emerged

  • “the saw buckled when it hit a knot”
4.

something twisted and tight and swollen

  • “their muscles stood out in knots”
  • “the old man”
  • “;”
Synonyms
5.
6.

soft lump or unevenness in a yarn; either an imperfection or created by design

Synonyms
7.

a sandpiper that breeds in the arctic and winters in the southern hemisphere

Synonyms

verb

1.

make into knots; make knots out of

  • “She knotted der fingers”
2.

tie or fasten into a knot

  • “knot the shoelaces”
3.

tangle or complicate

  • “a ravelled story”
Synonyms
Antonyms

Origin

From Middle English knotte, from Old English cnotta, from Proto-West Germanic *knottō, from Proto-Germanic *knuttô, *knudô (“knot”); probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gnod- (“to bind”). See also Old High German knoto (German Knoten, Dutch knot, Low German Knütte; also Old Norse knútr > Danish knude, Swedish knut, Norwegian knute, Faroese knútur, Icelandic hnútur; also Latin nōdus and its Romance descendants. Doublet of knout, node, and nodus. * (unit of speed): From the practice of counting the number of knots in the logline (as it is paid out) in a standard time. Traditionally spaced at one every ¹⁄₁₂₀ of a mile.

Phrases

  • Albright knot
  • alpine butterfly knot
  • alternating knot
  • angler's knot
  • arbor knot
  • Ashley's stopper knot
  • Bachmann knot
  • bag knot
  • knot off

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Parts

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.