knight

Noun

knight (plural knights)

1. (historical) A young servant or follower; a trained military attendant in service of a lord.
   • Not all knights held fiefs, and it was not unusual for knights to buy themselves freedom from the obligations of the fief, or even to abscond with the arms provided by their lord, becoming a part of the large number of unenfeoffed, wandering knights available for hire […]2001, Michael S. Drake, Problematics of Military Power: Government, Discipline and the Subject of Violence, →ISBN, page 97
2. (historical) A minor nobleman with an honourable military rank who had served as a page and squire.
3. (broadly) An armored and mounted warrior of the Middle Ages.
   • King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
   • There are two tombs, each bearing effigies of a knight and his lady. One is 14th century, the other 15th century. The earlier knight wears chain mail and his lady has long, flowing hair. The later knight has plate armour, and his wife wears a wimple.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 54
4. (historical) A person obliged to provide knight service in exchange for maintenance of an estate held in knight's fee.
5. (modern) A person on whom a knighthood has been conferred by a monarch.
6. (literary) A brave, chivalrous and honorable man devoted to a noble cause or love interest.
7. A chess piece, often in the shape of a horse's head, that is moved two squares in one direction and one at right angles to that direction in a single move, leaping over any intervening pieces.
   • The knight may move to one of the squares nearest to that on which it stands but not on the same rank, file or diagonal. […] There are two knights, on the squares g1 and e1, and one of them moves to the square f3: either Ngf3 or Nef3, as the case may be.2022, “2023 Laws of Chess”, in FIDE, pages 5, 22

   Synonyms:

   horse

8. (dated) A playing card bearing the figure of a knight; the knave or jack.
9. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Ypthima.
10. (modern) Any mushroom belonging to genus Tricholoma.
11. A species of nymphalid butterfly, Lebadea martha, found in tropical and subtropical Asia.
    • The Knight is quite common in the Srimangal forests, especially along the beds of dry or flowing streams.2004, Torben Bjørn Larsen, “Nymphalidae”, in Butterflies of Bangladesh: An Annotated Checklist, →ISBN, archived from the original on 28 Jun 2026, Tribe Parthenini, page 98
    • The Knight is a rather common species on Pulau Ubin and is regular seen on various parts of the island.2020 December 13, Khew SK, “Butterfly of the Month - December 2020”, in Butterflies of Singapore (blog), archived from the original on 28 Jun 2026

Verb

knight (third-person singular simple present knights, present participle knighting, simple past and past participle knighted)

1. (transitive) To confer knighthood upon.
   • The king knighted the young squire.
   • Highborn boys were sent off to another noble household at the age of about seven, to serve strenuously as pages and later as esquires to their lord before they themselves were knighted, looked around for a "lady" and incidentally got married and produced more knightlets, whom they never got to know...1971, Clayton C. Barbeau, Future of the family

   Synonyms:

   beknight

2. (transitive) To promote (a pawn) to a knight.

Proper noun capitalized: Knight

IPA/naɪt/

Knight

1. An English surname originating as an occupation for someone who was a mounted soldier.
   • Though teams from China have hoisted the Summoner’s Cup, which goes to the Worlds champion, it’s always been South Korean mid laners who have starred on those teams. Erzberger said Knight wants to be the first Chinese mid laner to hoist that trophy — and maybe become a national treasure himself.2023 November 10, Daniel Brown, “League of Legends Worlds: Can ‘Golden Left Hand’ top ‘Faker’ to earn a grand slam?”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 08 Jun 2024
2. A town in Iron County, Wisconsin, United States.
3. A settlement on Saint Croix, United States Virgin Islands.