kneecap

plural kneecaps

1. anatomyThe flat, roundish bone in the knee.

   Synonyms: kneepan, patella, rotula, scutum

2. businessA metal cover trim that fits over a panel rib after it has been cut and bent.
3. A cap or strong covering for the knees, used chiefly for horses, to protect their knees in case of a fall.

present singular third person kneecaps · participle present kneecapping · participle past kneecapped · past kneecapped

1. transitiveTo destroy the knees of (a person), usually by shooting at the knees, as a punishment carried out by criminals or terrorists.

   The Sinn Féin press officer Richard McAuley freely admitted, “Back four or five years ago, people were getting kneecapped who should not have been kneecapped.”

   2020, Liam Kennedy, Who Was Responsible for the Troubles?, McGill-Queen's Press, →ISBN, page 109

2. broadlyfigurativelytransitiveTo attack (someone) in a way that is excessively and needlessly damaging: to cut (someone) off at the knees.

   This story of how American originality lost its way is arresting and well told. On an alternate timeline without Donald Trump in office dismantling the American scientific establishment and Elon Musk kneecapping the American state, it might have been the manifesto of a new politics.

   2025 March 18, Samuel Moyn, “Can Democrats Learn to Dream Big Again?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 27 Mar 2025