knot

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: nŏt, IPA^(key): /nɒt/
• (General American) enPR: nŏt, IPA^(key): /nɑt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophones: not, naught (in accents with the cot-caught merger)
• Rhymes: -ɒt

From Middle English knotte, from Old English cnotta, from Proto-West Germanic *knottō, from Proto-Germanic *knuttô, *knudô (“knot”); (cognate with Old High German knoto (German Knoten, Dutch knot, Low German Knütte); compare also Old Norse knútr > Danish knude, Swedish knut, Norwegian knute, Faroese knútur, Icelandic hnútur). Probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gnod- (“to bind”), compare 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 log-line (as it is paid out) in a standard time. Traditionally spaced at one every ¹⁄₁₂₀ of a mile.

knot (plural knots)

1. 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.

   Climbers must make sure that all knots are both secure and of types that will not weaken the rope.

   • 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:

     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.

2. (of hair, etc) A tangled clump.

   The nurse was brushing knots from the protesting child's hair.

3. A maze-like pattern.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     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.

4. (mathematics) A non-self-intersecting closed curve in (e.g., three-dimensional) space that is an abstraction of a knot (in sense 1 above).

   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.

5. A difficult situation.

   I got into a knot when I inadvertently insulted a policeman.

   • 1664, Robert South, A Sermon Preached Before the University at Christ-Church, Oxon:

     A man shall be perplexed with knots, and problems of business, and contrary affairs.

6. The whorl left in lumber by the base of a branch growing out of the tree's trunk.

   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.

7. Local swelling in a tissue area, especially skin, often due to injury.

   Jeremy had a knot on his head where he had bumped it on the bedframe.

8. A tightened and contracted part of a muscle that feels like a hard lump under the skin.
9. A protuberant joint in a plant.
10. Any knob, lump, swelling, or protuberance.
    • 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Elaine”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 185:

      [T]he Queen who sat / With lips severely placid, felt the knot / Climb in her throat, […]

11. The swelling of the bulbus glandis in members of the dog family, Canidae.
12. The point on which the action of a story depends; the gist of a matter.

    the knot of the tale

13. (engineering) A node (point at which the lines of a funicular machine meet from different angular directions)
14. A kind of epaulet; a shoulder knot.
15. A group of people or things.
    • 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]:

      his ancient knot of dangerous adversarie

    • 1822, [Walter Scott], Peveril of the Peak. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC:

      As they sat together in small, separate knots, they discussed doctrinal and metaphysical points of belief.

    • 1859, Henry David Thoreau, A Plea for Captain John Brown‎:

      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.

    • 1962, James Baldwin, Another Country, New York, N. Y.: The Dial Press, published 1963 January, page 4:

      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.

    • 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.

16. A bond of union; a connection; a tie.
    • 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]:

      [I come] to crave a league of amity,
      And lastly, to confirm that amity
      With nuptial knot […]

    • 1646, Joseph Hall, The Balm of Gilead:

      [I]t were very fit, […] to observe carefully this previous betrothing of ourselves, ere we knit the knot that can never be loosed.

    • 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:

      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.

17. (aviation, nautical) A unit of speed, equal to one nautical mile per hour.

    Synonyms: kn, kt

    Cedric claimed his old yacht could make 12 knots.

18. (aviation) 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.

    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.

19. (nautical) A nautical mile.

    Synonym: nm

20. (slang) The bulbus glandis.
21. (fandom slang) In omegaverse fiction, a bulbus glandis-like structure on the penis of a male alpha, which ties him to an omega during intercourse.
    • 2014 July 18, Mark Shrayber, “'Knotting' Is the Weird Fanfic Sex Trend That Cannot Be Unseen”, in Jezebel:

      Since the knot won't release until the alpha has finished and can't be controlled by either party, the sex has to go on until it's done.

    • 2017, Taylor Boulware, "Fascination/Frustration: Slash Fandom, Genre, and Queer Uptake", dissertation submitted to the University of Washington, page 155:

      The pair cannot separate until the knot has subsided – anywhere from twenty minutes to hours, depending on the fic.

    • 2017, Marianne Gunderson, "What is an omega? Rewriting sex and gender in omegaverse fanfiction", thesis submitted to the University of Oslo, page 89:

      When John bites down on Sherlock's neck as his knot locks them together, the act which would otherwise be a tool for domination only reinforces the existing emotional bonds they have for each other.

• (whorl in wood): shake

knot (third-person singular simple present knots, present participle knotting, simple past and past participle knotted)

1. (transitive) To form into a knot; to tie with a knot or knots.

   We knotted the ends of the rope to keep it from unravelling.

   • 1833 (date written), Alfred Tennyson, “St. Simeon Stylites”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 56:

     For many weeks about my loins I wore / The rope that haled the buckets from the well, / Twisted as tight as I could knot the noose, / And spake not of it to a single soul, / And spake not of it to a single soul, / Until the ulcer, eating through my skin, / Betray'd my secret penance, so that all / My brethren marvell'd greatly.

2. (transitive) To form wrinkles in the forehead, as a sign of concentration, concern, surprise, etc.

   She knotted her brow in concentration while attempting to unravel the tangled strands.

3. To unite closely; to knit together.
   • a. 1627 (date written), Francis [Bacon], “Considerations Touching a VVarre vvith Spaine. […]”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany VVorks of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount S. Alban. […], London: […] I. Hauiland for Humphrey Robinson, […], published 1629, →OCLC:

     The party of the papists in England are become more knotted, both in dependence towards Spain, and amongst themselves.

4. (transitive, obsolete, rare) To entangle or perplex; to puzzle.
5. (intransitive) To form knots.
6. (intransitive) To knit knots for a fringe.

• (form into a knot): bind, tie
• (form wrinkles in forehead): knit
• (unite closely): attach, join, put together; see also Thesaurus:join
• (entangle or perplex): baffle, flummox; see also Thesaurus:confuse

• (antonym(s) of “form into a knot”): loosen, unbind, unknot, untie

Supposed to be derived from the name of King Canute, with whom the bird was a favourite article of food. See the specific epithet canutus.

knot (plural knots or knot)

1. One of a variety of shore birds; red-breasted sandpiper (variously Calidris canutus or Tringa canutus).
   • c. 1610, Ben Jonson, The Alchemist:

     My foot-boy shall eat pheasants, calvered salmons, / Knots, godwits, lampreys: I myself will have / The beards of barbels, served instead of salads […]

• Red Knot on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Tkon, Tonk, tonk

• IPA^(key): [ˈknot]

knot m inan

1. a candle wick

• knot in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• knot in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

• IPA^(key): /knɔt/

From Middle Dutch cnudde, Old Dutch *knotto, from Proto-Germanic *knuttan-, *knuttô.

Related to knod, English knot, West Frisian knotte, Middle High German Knotze, German Knoten, Danish knude, Norwegian knute, Swedish knut, etc.

knot f or m (plural knotten, diminutive knotje n)

1. A knot, bun (of hair), skein
2. The top or crest (with messy branches) of certain woody plants, notably willows
3. A flax seed box
4. (dialect) A marble to play with
5. A prank, joke

• knotten (verb)
• knotrank
• knottenkaf n
• haarknot
• vlasknot
• beknotten (verb)

• knotwilg

From the cognate English knot, possibly influenced by Vulgar Latin canutus (“grey-headed", "grizzled”).

knot f or m (plural knotten, diminutive knotje n)

1. The bird species Calidris canutus (syn. Tringa canutis)

• kanoetstrandloper m
• kanoetvogel m

• kont

knot

1. Alternative form of knotte

Borrowed from Middle High German knotze.

• IPA^(key): /knɔt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔt
• Syllabification: knot

knot m inan (diminutive knotek or knocik)

1. wick (of a candle)

• knot in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• knot in Polish dictionaries at PWN

knot c

1. Synonym of knorrhane (“gurnard”)

   Synonym: gnoding

knot n

1. grumbling (complaining under one's breath)

   Synonym: knorr

• knot in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• knot in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• knot in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

From Proto-Slavic *krъtъ.

• IPA^(key): /ˈknɔt/

knot m animal

1. mole, talpid (mammal of the family Talpidae)

• “knot” in Soblex