Word.ws English Dictionary

knuckled up

knuckled up is the simple past and past participle of knuckle up.

Meaning of knuckle up

Verb

knuckle up (third-person singular simple present knuckles up, present participle knuckling up, simple past and past participle knuckled up)

  1. (informal, chiefly African-American Vernacular) To clench one's fist(s) as though in preparation for a fight.
    • With a resolve to get his son away from these monsters, Isaac knuckled up and mean-mugged his opponent.2012, Vanessa Miller, Latter Rain
  2. (broadly, informal) To approach a problem aggressively.
  3. (slang) To strike or fight.

Questions about knuckled up

What is knuckled up the simple past and past participle of?
Knuckled up is the simple past and past participle of knuckle up.

Words near knuckled up in the dictionary

  1. knucklecurves
  2. knuckled
  3. knuckled down
  4. knuckled to
  5. knuckled under
  6. knuckled up
  7. knuckledragger
  8. knuckledraggers
  9. knuckleduster
  10. knuckledusters
  11. knucklefuck

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: knuckled up (page history and authors); knuckle up (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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