knuckle.
Any of the joints between the bones of the fingers.
Meaning & usage
Any of the joints between the bones of the fingers.
A mechanical joint.
The curved part of the cushion at the entrance to the pockets on a cue sports table.
The kneejoint of a quadruped, especially of a calf; formerly, the kneejoint of a human being.
A cut of meat of various kinds.
Beef knuckle is from the knee joint. Pork knuckle, or ham hock, is from the joint between the tibia/fibula and the metatarsals of the foot of a pig, where the foot was attached to the leg.
The joint of a plant.
A convex portion of a vessel's figure where a sudden change of shape occurs, as in a canal boat, where a nearly vertical side joins a nearly flat bottom.
A contrivance, usually of brass or iron, and furnished with points, worn to protect the hand, to add force to a blow, and to disfigure the person struck; a knuckle duster.
brass knuckles
The rounded point where a flat changes to a slope on a piste.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English knokel (“finger joint”), from Old English cnucel (“the juncture of two bones; knuckle; joint”), from Proto-West Germanic *knukil, from Proto-Germanic *knukilaz (“knuckle, knot, bump”), as *knukô (“bone, joint”) + *-ilaz (diminutive suffix). Cognate with Dutch knokkel (“knuckle”), Low German Knökel (“knuckle”), German Knöchel (“ankle, knuckle”), Old Norse knykill. More at knock.
To apply pressure, or rub or massage with one's knuckles (noun sense 1).
He knuckled the sleep from his eyes.
She knuckled her eyes in disbelief.
To strike or punch.
To bend the fingers.
To touch one's forehead as a mark of respect.
To yield.
To land on the knuckle (noun sense 9) of a curve of a slope, after a jump off a ramp that precedes the slope.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English knokel (“finger joint”), from Old English cnucel (“the juncture of two bones; knuckle; joint”), from Proto-West Germanic *knukil, from Proto-Germanic *knukilaz (“knuckle, knot, bump”), as *knukô (“bone, joint”) + *-ilaz (diminutive suffix). Cognate with Dutch knokkel (“knuckle”), Low German Knökel (“knuckle”), German Knöchel (“ankle, knuckle”), Old Norse knykill. More at knock.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.