knee

plural knees · dialectal obsolete plural kneen

1. anatomyIn humans, the joint or the region of the joint in the middle part of the leg between the thigh and the shank.

   Penny was wearing a miniskirt, so she skinned her exposed knees when she fell.

   2 more examples

   He made him ſtoup perforce vnto his knee, / And doe vnwilling worſhip to the Saint, / That on his ſhield depainted he did ſee[…]

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 249

   KORRIS: I have tasted your heart. You have been with them, but you are still "of" us. Do not deny the challenge of your destiny. Get off your knees and soar. Open your eyes and let the dream take flight.

   1988 March 21, Vaughn Armstrong, Heart of Glory (Star Trek: The Next Generation) (Science Fiction), Paramount Domestic Television, →OCLC

2. In the horse and allied animals, the carpal joint, corresponding to the wrist in humans.
3. In birds:
   1. non-technicalThe tarsal joint, uniting the tarsometatarsus and the tibiotarsus (homologous to the human ankle).
   2. The joint uniting the tibiotarsus and the femur, typically hidden beneath plumage.
4. The part of a garment that covers the knee.
5. businessA piece of timber or metal formed with an angle somewhat in the shape of the human knee when bent.

   Deck beams were supported by hanging knees, triangular pieces of wood typically found underneath the timbers they are designed to support, but in this case found above them.

   1980, Richard W. Unger, The Ship in the Medieval Economy 600-1600, page 41

   1 more example

   In the first place, British men-of-war and merchantmen were at that time built with massive oak frames, knees, and planking, the timber of which had lain at dockyards seasoning in salt water for many years, and was as hard and almost as heavy as iron, while they were fastened with weighty through-and-through copper bolts; so that the ships themselves became rigid, dead structures—sluggish in moderate winds, and in gales and a seaway, wallowing brutes—whereas the American frigates and privateers were built of material barely seasoned in the sun and wind, and were put together as lightly as possible consistent with the strength needed to carry their batteries and to hold on to their canvas in heavy weather.

   1911, Arthur Hamilton Clark, The Clipper Ship Era 1843-1869, Chapter 1

6. archaicAn act of kneeling, especially to show respect or courtesy.

   Give them title, knee, and approbation.

   c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], line 36

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   […] and he made a knee to the Caesar of Patna, giving that man all honour due to him.

   2009, C. E. Murphy, The Pretender's Crown, page 127

7. Any knee-shaped item or sharp angle in a line; an inflection point.

   the knee of a graph

8. A blow made with the knee; a kneeing.

   Tante was groggy but not quite out so Winnie gave him a knee to the jaw that Rose had shown her, and that was enough. He slumped like a rag-doll to the floor.

   2016, Clive Mullis, Scooters Yard

9. figurativelyThe presence of a parent etc., where a young child acquires early knowledge.

   The duty is, or should be, a thing taught at one's father's knee, and the structure of the family gently enforces it.

   1978, Time, volume 111, numbers 18-26, page 49

   1 more example

   This has significant implications for sacramental theology which it seems Pusey even realised in the way he spoke of his early life and of learning all he knew about the Eucharist and the Catholic faith at his mother's knee, […]

   2015, Brian Douglas, The Eucharistic Theology of Edward Bouverie Pusey, page 113

present singular third person knees · participle present kneeing · participle past kneed · past kneed

1. archaictransitiveTo kneel to.

   I could as well be brought / To knee his throne and, squire-like, pension beg / To keep base life afoot

   c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]

2. transitiveTo poke or strike with the knee.

   When I blocked her from leaving, she kneed me in the groin.

3. reflexiveTo move on the knees; to use the knees to move.

   Hassan kneed himself up, over, in, soundlessly, feet on floor, knife out, eyes like blunter knife trying to cut darkness.

   1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 489