knick-knack
/ˈnɪkˌnæk/
knick-knack noun: a small ornament or other object of minor value.
Noun
knick-knack (plural knick-knacks)
- A small ornament or other object of minor value.
- Our Cutler, who had now a great Stock of things of his Handy-work, gave them some little Knick Knacks, as Plates of Silver and of Iron, cut Diamond Fashion, and cut into Hearts and into Rings, and they were mightily pleased.1720, [Daniel Defoe], The Life, Adventures, and Pyracies, of the Famous Captain Singleton, London: […] J[ohn] Brotherton, […], J[ohn] Graves […], A[nne] Dodd, […], and T[homas] Warner, […], →OCLC...
- But there was no hitch in the conversation, nevertheless; for one gentleman, who travelled in the perfumery line, exhibited an interesting nick-nack, in the way of a remarkable cake of shaving soap, which he had lately met with in Germany […]1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, chapter 9, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC, page 110
knick-knack meaning in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Indonesian
knick-knack in Tamil
- பொட்டுப்பொடி, சிற்றழழூப் பொருள், சிற்றணிமணித் துணுக்கு, சிங்காரத் தட்டுமுட்டுப் பொருள், பொட்டுப் பொடிச் சரக்கு, சிறுவிளையாட்டுக் கருவி
knick-knack in Malayalam
- novelty, ornament, gewgaw
- ക്ഷുദ്രാലങ്കാരം, ചില്ലറപ്പണ്ടം, ചെറുകൗതൂകവസ്തു, കളിപ്പാട്ടം, ക്രീഡദ്രവ്യം, ചെറിയ അലങ്കാരവസ്തു
knick-knack in Kannada
- ಥಳಕು ಪಳಕಿನ ಆಟದ ಸಾಮಾನು, ಹಗುರವೂ ನಾಜೂಕೂ ಆದ ಪೀಠೋಪಕರಣ, ಮಿರುಗುವ ಥಳುಕಿನ ಒಡವೆ
knick-knack in Indonesian
- a small ornament of minor value
- tetek bengek, pernak-pernik
Examples of knick-knack in a sentence
- Rosier got up and wandered about with his careful tread, bending over the tables charged with knick-knacks and the cushions embossed with princely arms.1881, Henry James, Jr., chapter XXXVI, in The Portrait of a Lady, New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC, page 313:
- Or is it a mere adornment of life which we can do without—a mere knick-knack for Dame Civilization to hang about her wrinkled neck in order to dazzle her neighbours?1929, Frederick Philip Grove, “The Aim of Art”, in It Needs to Be Said:
Forms of knick-knack
| plural | knick-knacks |
|---|---|
| alternative form | knickknack |
| alternative form | nick-nack |
| alternative form | nicknack |
Origin of knick-knack
Reduplication of knack.
Words formed from knick-knack
Phrases with knick-knack
Questions about knick-knack
- What does knick-knack mean?
- Knick-knack means a small ornament or other object of minor value.
- What is knick-knack in Tamil?
- Knick-knack in Tamil is பொட்டுப்பொடி, சிற்றழழூப் பொருள், சிற்றணிமணித் துணுக்கு. See Knick-knack meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use knick-knack in a sentence?
- Rosier got up and wandered about with his careful tread, bending over the tables charged with knick-knacks and the cushions embossed with princely arms.
- What part of speech is knick-knack?
- Knick-knack is a noun.
- How do you pronounce knick-knack?
- Knick-knack is pronounced /ˈnɪkˌnæk/ (US).
- What is the plural of knick-knack?
- The plural of knick-knack is knick-knacks.
Words near knick-knack in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: knick-knack (page history and authors); knick-knack (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); knick-knack (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); knick-knack (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-knickknack.ogg.
Cite this entry: “knick-knack.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/knick-knack. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.