Word.ws English Dictionary

knuckling up

knuckling up is the present participle and gerund 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 knuckling up

What is knuckling up the present participle and gerund of?
Knuckling up is the present participle and gerund of knuckle up.

Words near knuckling up in the dictionary

  1. knuckliness
  2. knuckling
  3. knuckling down
  4. knuckling to
  5. knuckling under
  6. knuckling up
  7. knuckly
  8. knucks
  9. Knud Rasmussen Land
  10. Knudsen
  11. Knudsen flow

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: knuckling 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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