GNARL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does gnarl mean? 

• GNARL (noun)
  The noun GNARL has 1 sense:

1. something twisted and tight and swollen

  Familiarity information: GNARL used as a noun is very rare.

• GNARL (verb)
  The verb GNARL has 2 senses:

1. twist into a state of deformity

2. make complaining remarks or noises under one's breath

  Familiarity information: GNARL used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GNARL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Something twisted and tight and swollen

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Synonyms:

gnarl; knot

Context example:

his stomach was in knots

Hypernyms ("gnarl" is a kind of...):

distorted shape; distortion (a shape resulting from distortion)

Derivation:

gnarl (twist into a state of deformity)

gnarly (used of old persons or old trees; covered with knobs or knots)

• GNARL (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they gnarl    ... he / she / it gnarls   
Past simple: gnarled   
Past participle: gnarled   
-ing form: gnarling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Twist into a state of deformity

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

The wind has gnarled this old tree

Hypernyms (to "gnarl" is one way to...):

bend; deform; flex; turn; twist (cause (a plastic object) to assume a crooked or angular form)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

gnarl (something twisted and tight and swollen)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make complaining remarks or noises under one's breath

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

croak; gnarl; grumble; murmur; mutter

Context example:

she grumbles when she feels overworked

Hypernyms (to "gnarl" is one way to...):

complain; kick; kvetch; plain; quetch; sound off (express complaints, discontent, displeasure, or unhappiness)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

 Context examples 

Hordle John was stripped from his waist upwards, and his huge body, with his great muscles swelling out like the gnarled roots of an oak, towered high above the soldier.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His great red hands were bunched into huge, gnarled fists, and he shook one of them menacingly as his drunken gaze swept round the tables.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My eyes chanced to light upon the enormous gnarled trunk of the gingko tree which cast its huge branches over us.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He must be awfully old, for his face is all gnarled and twisted like the bark of a tree.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Neutral particles provide the buoyancy the gnarled knots of magnetic energy need to rise through the sun’s boiling plasma and reach the chromosphere.

(Scientists Uncover Origins of the Sun’s Swirling Spicules, NASA)

Every scratch in the scheme was a gnarled oak in the forest of difficulty, and I went on cutting them down, one after another, with such vigour, that in three or four months I was in a condition to make an experiment on one of our crack speakers in the Commons.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Gnarled olive trees covered the hills with their dusky foliage, fruit hung golden in the orchard, and great scarlet anemones fringed the roadside, while beyond green slopes and craggy heights, the Maritime Alps rose sharp and white against the blue Italian sky.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Under the long green-paved avenues of gnarled oaks and of lichened beeches the white-robed brothers gathered to the sound.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Even in repose the sun threw shadows from the curves of his skin, but when he exerted himself every muscle bunched itself up, distinct and hard, breaking his whole trunk into gnarled knots of sinew.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Here and there only, on the farthest sky-line, the gnarled turrets of a castle, or the graceful pinnacles of church or of monastery showed where the forces of the sword or of the spirit had preserved some small islet of security in this universal flood of misery.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)