knobby

comparative knobbier · superlative knobbiest

1. Resembling a knob.

   The baby kicked energetically. She caressed a knobby knee or elbow.

   2012, Carrie Weaver, Baby, I'M Yours, →ISBN

   1 more example

   They appeared, upon section, like wedge-shaped, knobby formations, penetrating into the placenta fetalis, and were thus found in three places ; the smallest was 3 mm. and the largest was 15 mm. in diameter.

   1871, New York Medical Journal - Volume 14, page 431

2. Having many knobs or knob-like projections.

   The oldest surface identified has a crater retention age N(l) 230,000 and is found below the knobby terrain (K).

   1988, NASA Technical Memorandum - Issue 4041, page 456

   3 more examples

   The large open leaves and large knobby leaves were picked out by hand, and formed the finest sort of "hyson skin" (known commercially as pretty good bloom, brightish hyson kind mixed, knobby leaf); the remaining leaves were hyson.

   1860, The Encyclopaedia Britannica

   Knobby Creek rises in the center part of Union Township, flowing north where it empties into the Osage River. Name suggested by the "knobby" character of the surrounding country, i.e. full of "knobs" or low hills. Sometimes called Beaver Creek, from the animal found here in early days.

   1943, Fauna R. Overlay, Place Names Of Five South Central Counties Of Missouri, M.A. thesis., University of Missouri-Columbia, archived from the original on 24 Jun 2016

   Further evidence for the correlation of basin structures arises from the spatial relation in both basins of the massifs to the associated knobby terrain.

   1975, Lunar Science Institute, Proceedings of the Sixth Lunar Science Conference, Houston, Texas

   Synonyms: nodose

plural knobbies

1. ScotlandThe end or heel of a loaf of bread.
2. A knobbly piece; a lump.

   The little broken bits of hot dog, the knobbies floating at the bottom of the pan, I sold off cheap to the scamps and scoundrels of Sutton who were many and various.

   2017, Jenny Landreth, Swell: A Waterbiography (page 15)

3. CornwallA saffron bun.

   2025, Eleanora H. Stooke, Little Sunbeam […] bread-and-butter and various kinds of preserves in glass dishes, an old china bowl full of clotted cream, a plum cake, and some saffron buns—"knobbies" as they are called in Cornwall.