knob-and-tube
knob-and-tube adjective: of or pertaining to a type of electrical wiring consisting of insulated conductive copper wire affixed by porcelain hardware and protected in vulnerable areas by insulated cloth sleeving. Widely used in North America during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Adjective
knob-and-tube (not comparable)
- Of or pertaining to a type of electrical wiring consisting of insulated conductive copper wire affixed by porcelain hardware and protected in vulnerable areas by insulated cloth sleeving. Widely used in North America during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
- If living in a house with antiquated knob-and-tube wiring—individual wires, not cables, passing through porcelain insulators—live wiring can be detected with a magnetic compass whose needle deflects1993 September 5, John Warde, “Home Clinic: Tips From Professionals To Handle Pesky Tasks”, in New York Times, retrieved 29 Jul 2013
Forms of knob-and-tube
| alternative form | knob and tube |
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Questions about knob-and-tube
- What does knob-and-tube mean?
- Knob-and-tube means of or pertaining to a type of electrical wiring consisting of insulated conductive copper wire affixed by porcelain hardware and protected in vulnerable areas by insulated cloth sleeving. Widely used in North America during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
- What part of speech is knob-and-tube?
- Knob-and-tube is an adjective.
Words near knob-and-tube in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: knob-and-tube (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.
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Cite this entry: “knob-and-tube.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/knob-and-tube. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.