knuckle

plural knuckles

1. Any of the joints between the bones of the fingers.
2. broadlyA mechanical joint.
3. ball gamesThe curved part of the cushion at the entrance to the pockets on a cue sports table.
4. The kneejoint of a quadruped, especially of a calf; formerly, the kneejoint of a human being.

   With wearie knockles on thy brim she kneeled sadly downe

   1567, Ovid, “(please specify the book number or chapter)”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, […], London: […] Willyam Seres […], →OCLC

5. 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.

6. obsoleteThe joint of a plant.

   In the West Indies there are found, even in sandy deserts and very dry places, large canes, which at every joint or knuckle yield a good supply of fresh water

   1623, Francis Bacon, The History of Dense and Rare

7. businessA 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.
8. 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

9. hobbiesThe rounded point where a flat changes to a slope on a piste.

present singular third person knuckles · participle present knuckling · participle past knuckled · past knuckled

1. transitiveTo apply pressure, or rub or massage with one's knuckles (noun sense 1).

   She knuckled her eyes in disbelief.

   1 more example

   He knuckled the sleep from his eyes.

2. slangtransitiveTo strike or punch.

   Only then I knuckled him. He had to be taught a hard lesson.

   2014, W. Smyth, Mama OM, page 415

   1 more example

   I could feel my big toe snap, but as he's gone down on his good knee and half swung round I knuckled him in the kidney as hard as I could hit. He's gone all the way down, so I dropped my 19 stone into the middle of his back.

   2013, Lenny McLean, The Guv'nor

3. intransitiveTo bend the fingers.
4. intransitiveTo touch one's forehead as a mark of respect.
5. figurativelyintransitiveTo yield.

   Synonyms: knuckle under

6. hobbiesTo land on the knuckle (noun sense 9) of a curve of a slope, after a jump off a ramp that precedes the slope.