knurly
/ˈnɜː(ɹ)li/
knurly adjective: gnarled or knotty; hard and misshapen.
Adjective
knurly (comparative knurlier or more knurly, superlative knurliest or most knurly)
- Gnarled or knotty; hard and misshapen.
- It seems too much like a great tree, beautiful, symmetrical, and full of leaves, but raised or desired only for fruit, yet bearing little, and some of that little not of good quality, but knurly or bitter.1851, Goold Brown, The Grammar of English Grammars
- "Well, I swow!" ejaculated the Cap'n, rubbing his knurly forefinger under his nose, and glancing first at the parrots and then at the lady.1911, Holman Day, The Skipper and the Skipped
Forms of knurly
| comparative | knurlier |
|---|---|
| comparative | more knurly |
| superlative | knurliest |
| superlative | most knurly |
Origin of knurly
From knurl + -y.
Words that rhyme with knurly
6 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about knurly
- What does knurly mean?
- Knurly means gnarled or knotty; hard and misshapen.
- What part of speech is knurly?
- Knurly is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce knurly?
- Knurly is pronounced /ˈnɜː(ɹ)li/.
Words near knurly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: knurly (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: “knurly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/knurly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.