Word.ws English Dictionary

thief knot

thief knot noun: a knot for tying together two ends of rope; similar to a reef knot, but with the tails (short ends) on opposite sides; weaker than a reef knot.

thief knot: a knot for tying together two ends of rope; similar to a reef knot, but with the tails (short ends)...
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Noun

thief knot (plural thief knots)

  1. A knot for tying together two ends of rope; similar to a reef knot, but with the tails (short ends) on opposite sides; weaker than a reef knot.
    • Another variant on this simple knot is the fool's knot or thief knot, which is similar to the square knot except that the loose ends emerge diagonally from opposite corners of the knot.1993, Funk & Wagnalls Corporation, Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia, volume 15, page 282

Forms of thief knot

pluralthief knots

Origin of thief knot

Supposedly used as a theft-detection system; thieves would retie bags with a more common reef knot, revealing the theft.

Questions about thief knot

What does thief knot mean?
Thief knot means a knot for tying together two ends of rope; similar to a reef knot, but with the tails (short ends) on opposite sides; weaker than a reef knot.
What part of speech is thief knot?
Thief knot is a noun.
What is the plural of thief knot?
The plural of thief knot is thief knots.

Words near thief knot in the dictionary

  1. thief
  2. thief ant
  3. thief ants
  4. thief in law
  5. thief in the night
  6. thief knot
  7. thief knots
  8. thief palm
  9. Thief River Falls
  10. thief tube
  11. thief tubes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: thief knot (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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