knot
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: nŏt
ipa: /nɒt/
enpr: nŏt
ipa: /nɑt/
homophone: not
homophone: naught (cot–caught merger)
rhymes: -ɒt
Forms: form: knots
Etymology: From Middle English knotte, from Old English cnotta, from Proto-West Germanic *knottō, from Proto-Germanic *knuttô, *knudô (“knot”); probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gnod- (“to bind”).
See also Old High German knoto (German Knoten, Dutch knot, Low German Knütte; also Old Norse knútr > Danish knude, Swedish knut, Norwegian knute, Faroese knútur, Icelandic hnútur; also Latin nōdus and its Romance descendants. Doublet of knout, node, and nodus.
* (unit of speed): From the practice of counting the number of knots in the logline (as it is paid out) in a standard time. Traditionally spaced at one every ¹⁄₁₂₀ of a mile.
Senses: examples: text: Climbers must make sure that all knots are both secure and of types that will not weaken the rope.
text: The obstructive tendency attributed to the knot in spiritual matters appears in a Swiss superstition that if, in sewing a corpse into its shroud, you make a knot on the thread, it will hinder the soul of the deceased on its passage to eternity.
ref: 1911, James George Frazer, chapter V, in Taboo and the Perils of the Soul (The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion; II), third edition, London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, page 310:
glosses: A looping of a piece of string or of any other long, flexible material that cannot be untangled without passing one or both ends of the material through its loops.
examples: text: The nurse was brushing knots from the protesting child's hair.
glosses: A tangled clump of hair or similar.
examples: text: Flowers worthy of paradise, which, not nice art / In beds and curious knots, but nature boon / Poured forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
glosses: A maze-like pattern.
examples: text: A knot can be defined as a non-self-intersecting broken line whose endpoints coincide: when such a knot is constrained to lie in a plane, then it is simply a polygon.
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: A non-self-intersecting closed curve in (e.g., three-dimensional) space that is an abstraction of a knot (in sense 1 above).
examples: text: I got into a knot when I inadvertently insulted a policeman.
text: A man shall be perplexed with knots, and problems of business, and contrary affairs.
ref: 1664, Robert South, A Sermon Preached Before the University at Christ-Church, Oxon:
glosses: A difficult situation.
examples: text: When preparing to tell stories at a campfire, I like to set aside a pile of pine logs with lots of knots, since they burn brighter and make dramatic pops and cracks.
glosses: The whorl left in lumber by the base of a branch growing out of the tree's trunk.
examples: text: Jeremy had a knot on his head where he had bumped it on the bedframe.
glosses: Local swelling in a tissue area, especially skin, often due to injury.
glosses: A tightened and contracted part of a muscle that feels like a hard lump under the skin.
glosses: A protuberant joint in a plant.
examples: text: [T]he Queen who sat / With lips severely placid, felt the knot / Climb in her throat, […]
ref: 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Elaine”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 185:
glosses: Any knob, lump, swelling, or protuberance.
glosses: The swelling of the bulbus glandis in members of the dog family, Canidae.
examples: text: the knot of the tale
glosses: The point on which the action of a story depends; the gist of a matter.
topics: engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: A node (point at which the lines of a funicular machine meet from different angular directions)
glosses: A kind of epaulet; a shoulder knot.
examples: text: his ancient knot of dangerous adversarie
ref: c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
text: As they sat together in small, separate knots, they discussed doctrinal and metaphysical points of belief.
ref: 1822, [Walter Scott], Peveril of the Peak. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC:
text: When, for instance, he saw a knot of the ruffians on the prairie, discussing, of course, the single topic which then occupied their minds, he would, perhaps, take his compass and one of his sons, and proceed to run an imaginary line right through the very spot on which that conclave had assembled, and when he came up to them, he would naturally pause and have some talk with them, learning their news, and, at last, all their plans perfectly; and having thus completed his real survey he would resume his imaginary one, and run on his line till he was out of sight.
ref: 1859, Henry David Thoreau, A Plea for Captain John Brown:
text: The garden was bounded by a three-foot brick wall with a fringe of wood rails upon the top, and against this wall was leaning a stalwart police constable, surrounded by a small knot of loafers, who craned their necks and strained their eyes in the vain hope of catching some glimpse of the proceedings within.
ref: 1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet, page 39:
text: At corners, under the lights, near drugstores, small knots of white, bright, chattering people showed teeth to each other, pawed each other, whistled for taxis, were whirled away in them, vanished through the doors of drugstores or into the blackness of side streets.
ref: 1962, James Baldwin, Another Country, New York, N. Y.: The Dial Press, published January 1963, page 4:
text: 1968, Bryce Walton, Harpoon Gunner, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, NY, (1968), page 20,
He pushed through knots of whalemen grouped with their families and friends, and surrounded by piles of luggage.
glosses: A group of people or things.
examples: text: [I come] to crave a league of amity,
And lastly, to confirm that amity
With nuptial knot […]
ref: c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third 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 iii]:
text: [I]t were very fit, […] to observe carefully this previous betrothing of ourselves, ere we knit the knot that can never be loosed.
ref: 1646, Jos[eph] Hall, The Balme of Gilead: Or, Comforts for the Distressed, both Morall and Divine. […], London: […] M[iles] Flesher, for Nat[haniel] Butter, →OCLC:
text: Indeed I would advise every ſingle lady, if poſſible, to attend her inamorato, pretty frequently at the card table; […] if he is haſty or pettiſh with any one else in company, she may depend on the ſame fate when once the knot is tied.
ref: 1795, Joseph Addison, “An Essay on Card-playing”, in Interesting Anecdotes, Memoirs, Allegories, Essays, and Poetical Fragments; Tending to Amuse the Fancy, and Inculcate Morality, page 67:
glosses: A bond of union; a connection; a tie.
examples: text: Cedric claimed his old yacht could make 12 knots.
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
nautical
physical-sciences
transport
synonyms: kn
kt
glosses: A unit of speed, equal to one nautical mile per hour.
examples: text: In the early stages of reentry, due to the extremely-rarefied air at these altitudes, the space shuttle flew at only one to a few knots equivalent airspeed, even when its actual speed was many thousands of knots.
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: A unit of indicated airspeed, calibrated airspeed, or equivalent airspeed, which varies in its relation to the unit of speed so as to compensate for the effects of different ambient atmospheric conditions on aircraft performance.
topics: nautical
transport
synonyms: nm
glosses: A nautical mile.
glosses: The bulbus glandis.
Derived terms: Albright knot
alpine butterfly knot
alternating knot
angler's knot
arbor knot
Ashley's stopper knot
Bachmann knot
bag knot
balloon knot
Bantu knot
barrel knot
beer knot
binding knot
black knot
blood knot
bowknot
bowstring knot
breastknot
burr knot
butterfly knot
Celtic knot
Clytie knot
constrictor knot
Conway knot
cut the Gordian knot
cut the knot
cystine knot
dolly knot
electrician's knot
endknot
English knot
Englishman's knot
equalizer knot
Euro death-knot
fat knot
Fintushel-Stern knot
fire-escape knot
fireman's chair knot
fisherman's knot
French knot
garlic knot
get knotted
get one's knickers in a knot
get one's shorts in a knot
Ghiordes knot
Gordian knot
granny knot
grass knot
Grecian knot
grief knot
handcuff knot
hobble knot
honda knot
human knot
inknot
interknot
jufti knot
KCAS
KEAS
KIAS
kn
knotberry
knot diagram
knotful
knot garden
knotgrass
knothead
knothole
knot-horn
knot invariant
knotless
knotlike
knotoid
knotroot
knot span
knottable
knotter
knot theory
knottin
knottle
knotty
knotweed
knotwork
knotwort
kt
KTAS
Lissajous knot
loop-knot
love knot
manharness knot
milk knot
miller's knot
misknot
nail knot
Nubian knot
olive knot
overhand knot
Philadelphia knot
porter's knot
Pratt knot
pretzel knot
pseudoknot
Psyche knot
reef knot
reknot
root-knot nematode
rose knot
running knot
sack knot
schoolboy knot
seek a knot in a bulrush
Shelby knot
shepherd's knot
shoulder-knot
shroud knot
simple knot
slice knot
slip knot
slipknot
Solomon's knot
square knot
Stafford knot
stevedore's knot
stopper knot
Suebian knot
Suevian knot
surfer's knot
surgeon's knot
sword knot
tape knot
thief knot
thumb knot
tie the knot
topknot
trefoil knot
true-love-knot
true-love knot
true lover's knot
Turkish knot
underwriter's knot
unknot
wall knot
water knot
waterman's knot
weaver's knot
Windsor knot
witch-knot
Related terms: sense: whorl in wood
word: shake