knit
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /nɪt/
homophone: nit
rhymes: -ɪt
Forms: form: knits
form: knitting
form: knit
form: knit
form: knitted
form: knitted
Etymology: From Middle English knytten, from Old English cnyttan (“to fasten, tie, bind, knit; add, append”), from Proto-West Germanic *knuttijan, from Proto-Germanic *knutjaną, *knuttijaną (“to make knots, knit”).
Cognate with Low German knütten and Old Norse knýta (whence Danish knytte, Norwegian Nynorsk knyta). More at knot.
Senses: examples: text: to knit a stocking
text: The first generation knitted to order; the second still knits for its own use; the next leaves knitting to industrial manufacturers.
glosses: To turn thread or yarn into a piece of fabric by forming loops that are pulled through each other. This can be done by hand with needles or by machine.
examples: text: Stitches that are knitted look like little V’s when seen from the front.
glosses: To create a stitch by pulling the working yarn through an existing stitch from back to front.
examples: text: The fight for survival knitted the men closely together.
text: Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage
Thy merit hath my duty strongly knit,
To thee I send this written embassage,
ref: 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 26”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
text: And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 18:1:
text: Come, knit hands, and beate the ground
In a light fantastick round.
ref: 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC, page 6:
english: Comus
translation: Comus
text: Nature cannot knit the bones while the parts are under a discharge.
ref: 1672, Richard Wiseman, A Treatise of Wounds, London: Richard Royston:
text: Her office there to rear, to teach,
Becoming as is meet and fit
A link among the days, to knit
The generations each with each;
ref: 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXXIX”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 60:
glosses: To join closely and firmly together.
glosses: To become closely and firmly joined; become compacted.
examples: text: All those seedlings knitted into a kaleidoscopic border.
glosses: To grow together.
examples: text: The witness knitted together his testimony from contradictory pieces of hearsay.
glosses: To combine from various elements.
examples: text: I’ll go skiing again after my bones knit.
glosses: To heal following a fracture.
raw_tags: of bones
examples: text: When your head did but ache,
I knit my handkercher about your brows,
ref: c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
text: [He] saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending upon him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners […]
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 10:11:
glosses: To form into a knot, or into knots; to tie together, as cord; to fasten by tying.
examples: text: He knits his brow and shows an angry eye,
ref: 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
glosses: To draw together; to contract into wrinkles.
Coordinate terms: sense: create a stitch by pulling yarn through from back
word: purl
Derived terms: beknit
close-knit
enknit
handknit
inknit
interknit
knitaholic
knitalong
knitathon
knitback
knitbone
knit cap
knit fog
knitlike
knit one's brow
knit one's brows
knit one's eyebrows
knitster
knittability
knittable
knitten
knitter
knitting
knitting needle
knit together
knit up
knitwear
knitwise
knitwork
knit yoghurt
loose-knit
misknit
outknit
reknit
stick to one's knitting
tight-knit
tightknit
unknit
well-knit
Related terms: tricot
weave