knuckle
/ˈnʌkəl/
knuckle noun: any of the joints between the bones of the fingers.
Noun
knuckle (plural knuckles)
- Any of the joints between the bones of the fingers.
- A mechanical joint.
- The curved part of the cushion at the entrance to the pockets on a cue sports table.
- The kneejoint of a quadruped, especially of a calf; formerly, the kneejoint of a human being.
- With wearie knockles on thy brim she kneeled sadly downe1567, Ovid, “(please specify the book number or chapter)”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, […], London: […] Willyam Seres […], →OCLC
- A cut of meat of various kinds.
- Beef knuckle is from the knee joint. Pork knuckle, or ham hock, is from the joint between the tibia/fibula and the metatarsals of the foot of a pig, where the foot was attached to the leg.
- The joint of a plant.
- In the West Indies there are found, even in sandy deserts and very dry places, large canes, which at every joint or knuckle yield a good supply of fresh water1623, Francis Bacon, The History of Dense and Rare
- A convex portion of a vessel's figure where a sudden change of shape occurs, as in a canal boat, where a nearly vertical side joins a nearly flat bottom.
- A contrivance, usually of brass or iron, and furnished with points, worn to protect the hand, to add force to a blow, and to disfigure the person struck; a knuckle duster.
- brass knuckles
- The rounded point where a flat changes to a slope on a piste.
Verb
knuckle (third-person singular simple present knuckles, present participle knuckling, simple past and past participle knuckled)
- To apply pressure, or rub or massage with one's knuckles (noun sense 1).
- He knuckled the sleep from his eyes.
- She knuckled her eyes in disbelief.
- To strike or punch.
- I could feel my big toe snap, but as he's gone down on his good knee and half swung round I knuckled him in the kidney as hard as I could hit. He's gone all the way down, so I dropped my 19 stone into the middle of his back.2013, Lenny McLean, The Guv'nor
- Only then I knuckled him. He had to be taught a hard lesson.2014, W. Smyth, Mama OM, page 415
- To bend the fingers.
- To touch one's forehead as a mark of respect.
- To yield.
- Synonyms:
- knuckle under
- To land on the knuckle (noun sense 9) of a curve of a slope, after a jump off a ramp that precedes the slope.
knuckle meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu
knuckle in Tamil
- விரலின் முளி, கணு, கணுவிரல், மொளி
knuckle in Urdu
- گانٹھ, گٹا, جوڑ, پور, مارنا, تھپ تھپانا
knuckle in Bengali
- knuckle
- গাঁট gãṭ
knuckle in Telugu
- a knuckle
- మొట్టు moṭṭu
More languagesFewer languages
- knuckle in Malayalam
- വിരൽസന്ധി, അംഗുലീസന്ധി, വിരൽ മടങ്ങുന്ന സ്ഥലം
- knuckle in Kannada
- ಗಣಲು, ಗಣಿಕೆ, ಗೆಣ್ಣು
- knuckle in Punjabi
- ਨੱਕਲ
- knuckle in Gujarati
- વેઢો veḍho
- knuckle in Odia
- ଗଣ୍ଠି gaṇṭhi
- knuckle in Tagalog
- buko
- knuckle in Arabic
- بُرْجُمَة burjuma, مَفْصِل mafṣil, أَشْجَع ʔašjaʕ
- knuckle in Malay
- buku
- knuckle in Persian
- مفصل mafsal, بند انگشت band-e angošt
- knuckle in Thai
- ข้อนิ้ว kɔ̂ɔ-níu
- knuckle in Vietnamese
- khớp
Examples of knuckle in a sentence
- Just rap your knuckles on the wall when you're ready to go.
- If the sales department doesn't get organized soon, the CEO is going to rap their knuckles.
- He knuckled the sleep from his eyes.
Synonyms of knuckle
Forms of knuckle
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | knuckles |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | knuckles |
| present participle | knuckling |
| past participle | knuckled |
| past | knuckled |
Origin of knuckle
From Middle English knokel (“finger joint”), from Old English cnucel (“the juncture of two bones; knuckle; joint”), from Proto-West Germanic *knukil, from Proto-Germanic *knukilaz (“knuckle, knot, bump”), as *knukô (“bone, joint”) + *-ilaz (diminutive suffix). Cognate with Dutch knokkel (“knuckle”), Low German Knökel (“knuckle”), German Knöchel (“ankle, knuckle”), Old Norse knykill. More at knock.
Words formed from knuckle
- knuckle down
- knuckle to
- knuckle under
- knuckle up
- knuckleball
- knucklebone
- knuckleboom
- knucklecurve
- knuckleheaded
- knucklelike
- knuckler
- knucklesome
- knucklewalk
- knucklewalker
- knuckly
- knuckle bow
- knuckle-buster
- knuckle children
- knuckle dragger
- knuckle-dragging
- knuckle duster
- knucklehead
- knuckle joint
- knuckle sandwich
- knuckle-kneed
- knuckle-scraper
- knuckle-tat
- knuckle-walking
- bare-knuckle → bare-knuckle boxing
- brass knuckles
- five-knuckle shuffle
- fuck-knuckle
- interknuckle
- moose knuckle
- near the knuckle
- pea-knuckle → pea-knuckle war
- pork knuckle
- Timmy Tough Knuckles
- white-knuckle → white-knuckle ride
Phrases with knuckle
Words that rhyme with knuckle
Questions about knuckle
- What does knuckle mean?
- Knuckle means any of the joints between the bones of the fingers.
- What is knuckle in Tamil?
- Knuckle in Tamil is விரலின் முளி, கணு, கணுவிரல். See Knuckle meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is knuckle?
- Knuckle can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce knuckle?
- Knuckle is pronounced /ˈnʌkəl/.
- What is the plural of knuckle?
- The plural of knuckle is knuckles.
Words near knuckle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: knuckle (page history and authors); knuckle (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); knuckle (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); গাঁট (Bengali) (page history and authors); మొట్టు (Telugu) (page history and authors); knuckle (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); knuckle (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); knuckle (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); વેઢો (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ଗଣ୍ଠି (Odia) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-knuckle.ogg.
Cite this entry: “knuckle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/knuckle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.