| English Dictionary |
KNIGHT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
| IPA (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does knight mean?
• KNIGHT (noun)
The noun KNIGHT has 2 senses:
1. originally a person of noble birth trained to arms and chivalry; today in Great Britain a person honored by the sovereign for personal merit
2. a chessman shaped to resemble the head of a horse; can move two squares horizontally and one vertically (or vice versa)
Familiarity information: KNIGHT used as a noun is rare.
• KNIGHT (verb)
The verb KNIGHT has 1 sense:
1. raise (someone) to knighthood
Familiarity information: KNIGHT used as a verb is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Originally a person of noble birth trained to arms and chivalry; today in Great Britain a person honored by the sovereign for personal merit
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("knight" is a kind of...):
male aristocrat (a man who is an aristocrat)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "knight"):
carpet knight (a knight who spends his time in luxury and idleness (knighted on the carpet at court rather than on the field of battle))
bachelor; bachelor-at-arms; knight bachelor (a knight of the lowest order; could display only a pennon)
banneret; knight banneret; knight of the square flag (a knight honored for valor; entitled to display a square banner and to hold higher command)
Knight of the Round Table (in the Arthurian legend, a knight of King Arthur's court)
knight-errant (a wandering knight travelling in search of adventure)
Knight Templar; Templar (a knight of a religious military order established in 1118 to protect pilgrims and the Holy Sepulcher)
Instance hyponyms:
Geraint; Sir Geraint ((Arthurian legend) one of the knights of the Round Table)
Derivation:
knight (raise (someone) to knighthood)
knightly (being attentive to women like an ideal knight)
knightly (characteristic of the time of chivalry and knighthood in the Middle Ages)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A chessman shaped to resemble the head of a horse; can move two squares horizontally and one vertically (or vice versa)
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Synonyms:
horse; knight
Hypernyms ("knight" is a kind of...):
chess piece; chessman (any of 16 white and 16 black pieces used in playing the game of chess)
Domain category:
chess; chess game (a board game for two players who move their 16 pieces according to specific rules; the object is to checkmate the opponent's king)
| Conjugation: |
... he / she / it knights Past simple: knighted
Past participle: knighted
-ing form: knighting
Sense 1
Meaning:
Raise (someone) to knighthood
Classified under:
Verbs of political and social activities and events
Synonyms:
dub; knight
Context example:
The Beatles were knighted
Hypernyms (to "knight" is one way to...):
ennoble; entitle; gentle (give a title to someone; make someone a member of the nobility)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s somebody
Derivation:
knight (originally a person of noble birth trained to arms and chivalry; today in Great Britain a person honored by the sovereign for personal merit)
Context examples
Each of them is the device of some noble lord or gallant knight who hath slept under my roof at one time or another.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Meg colored behind the brake, but asked no questions and looked across the river with the same expectant expression which Mr. Brooke had worn when he told the story of the knight.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
The king’s daughter came forward, and threw a golden apple to the knights, but none of them caught it but he, only as soon as he had it he galloped away.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
“But see here,” he said, looking before us, “where the original little Em'ly comes! And that fellow with her, eh? Upon my soul, he's a true knight. He never leaves her!”
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
He have allowed us to redeem one soul already, and we go out as the old knights of the Cross to redeem more.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
It is a name of heroism and renown; of kings, princes, and knights; and seems to breathe the spirit of chivalry and warm affections.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Herself the widow of only a knight, she gave the dignity of a baronet all its due; and Sir Walter, independent of his claims as an old acquaintance, an attentive neighbour, an obliging landlord, the husband of her very dear friend, the father of Anne and her sisters, was, as being Sir Walter, in her apprehension, entitled to a great deal of compassion and consideration under his present difficulties.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
A dignity was given to the contest by a rigid code of ceremony, just as the clash of mail-clad knights was prefaced and adorned by the calling of the heralds and the showing of blazoned shields.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
She had never been tormented by womanhood, and she had lived in a dreamland of Tennysonian poesy, dense even to the full significance of that delicate master's delicate allusions to the grossnesses that intrude upon the relations of queens and knights.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Never a knight's lady shall be better betrimmed and betrinketed.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
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