KNOT (knotted, knotting)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: knotted    , knotting   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does knot mean? 

• KNOT (noun)
  The noun KNOT has 7 senses:

1. a tight cluster of people or things

2. any of various fastenings formed by looping and tying a rope (or cord) upon itself or to another rope or to another object

3. a hard cross-grained round piece of wood in a board where a branch emerged

4. (of ships and wind) a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour or about 1.15 statute miles per hour

5. something twisted and tight and swollen

6. soft lump or unevenness in a yarn; either an imperfection or created by design

7. a sandpiper that breeds in the Arctic and winters in the southern hemisphere

  Familiarity information: KNOT used as a noun is common.

• KNOT (verb)
  The verb KNOT has 3 senses:

1. make into knots; make knots out of

2. tie or fasten into a knot

3. tangle or complicate

  Familiarity information: KNOT used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• KNOT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A tight cluster of people or things

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Context example:

the bird had a knot of feathers forming a crest

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

bunch; clump; cluster; clustering (a grouping of a number of similar things)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any of various fastenings formed by looping and tying a rope (or cord) upon itself or to another rope or to another object

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

fastener; fastening; fixing; holdfast (restraint that attaches to something or holds something in place)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "knot"):

barrel knot; blood knot (a knot used for tying fishing leaders together; the ends of the two leaders are wrapped around each other two or three times)

Turk's head (an ornamental knot that resembles a small turban)

surgeon's knot (any of several knots used in tying stitches or ligatures)

stopper knot (a knot that prevents a rope from passing through a hole)

square knot (a double knot made of two half hitches and used to join the ends of two cords)

slipknot (a knot at the end of a cord or rope that can slip along the cord or rope around which it is made)

sheepshank (a knot for shortening a line)

prolonge knot; sailor's breastplate (a knot in the rope used to drag a gun carriage)

overhand knot (a simple small knot (often used as part of other knots))

love knot; lover's knot; lovers' knot; true lover's knot; true lovers' knot (a stylized or decorative knot used as an emblem of love)

loop knot (any of various knots used to make a fixed loop in a rope)

hitch (a knot that can be undone by pulling against the strain that holds it; a temporary knot)

hawser bend (a knot uniting the ends of two lines)

half hitch (a knot used to fasten a rope temporarily to an object; usually tied double)

Gordian knot (an intricate knot tied by Gordius, the king of Phrygia, and cut by the sword of Alexander the Great after he heard that whoever undid it would become ruler of Asia)

fisherman's knot; true lover's knot; truelove knot (a knot for tying the ends of two lines together)

fisherman's bend (a knot for tying a line to a spar or ring)

figure eight; figure of eight (a knot having the shape of the numeral 8; tied in a rope that has been passed through a hole or pulley and that prevents the rope from coming loose)

clove hitch (a knot used to fasten a line temporarily to a post or spar)

carrick bend (a knot used to connect the ends of two large ropes or hawsers)

bow; bowknot (a knot with two loops and loose ends; used to tie shoelaces)

Derivation:

knot (tie or fasten into a knot)

knotty (tangled in knots or snarls)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A hard cross-grained round piece of wood in a board where a branch emerged

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Context example:

the saw buckled when it hit a knot

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

wood (the hard fibrous lignified substance under the bark of trees)

Holonyms ("knot" is a part of...):

board; plank (a stout length of sawn timber; made in a wide variety of sizes and used for many purposes)

Sense 4

Meaning:

(of ships and wind) a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour or about 1.15 statute miles per hour

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

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

rate (a magnitude or frequency relative to a time unit)

Sense 5

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 ("knot" is a kind of...):

distorted shape; distortion (a shape resulting from distortion)

Derivation:

knot (tangle or complicate)

knot (make into knots; make knots out of)

knotty (tangled in knots or snarls)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Soft lump or unevenness in a yarn; either an imperfection or created by design

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

burl; knot; slub

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

raggedness; roughness (a texture of a surface or edge that is not smooth but is irregular and uneven)

Sense 7

Meaning:

A sandpiper that breeds in the Arctic and winters in the southern hemisphere

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

Calidris canutus; grayback; greyback; knot

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

sandpiper (any of numerous usually small wading birds having a slender bill and piping call; closely related to the plovers)

Holonyms ("knot" is a member of...):

Calidris; genus Calidris (a genus of Scolopacidae)

• KNOT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they knot    ... he / she / it knots   
Past simple: knotted   
Past participle: knotted   
-ing form: knotting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make into knots; make knots out of

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Context example:

She knotted her fingers

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

create from raw material; create from raw stuff (make from scratch)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "knot"):

macrame (make knotted patterns)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

knot (something twisted and tight and swollen)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Tie or fasten into a knot

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

knot the shoelaces

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

bind; tie (fasten or secure with a rope, string, or cord)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

knot (any of various fastenings formed by looping and tying a rope (or cord) upon itself or to another rope or to another object)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Tangle or complicate

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

knot; ravel; tangle

Context example:

a ravelled story

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

enlace; entwine; interlace; intertwine; lace; twine (spin, wind, or twist together)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

Antonym:

unknot (become or cause to become undone by separating the fibers or threads of)

Derivation:

knot (something twisted and tight and swollen)

 Context examples 

Holmes was down on his knees, examining with great attention the knots upon the red cord with which the lady had been secured.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I’m just off a two-yearer in an eight-knot tramp, short-handed at that, and I wants a rest.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

An Eley’s No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen who can twist steel pokers into knots.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We were not making more than nine knots, but the fog-bank was very near.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

How many of them could tie a lanyard knot, or take a wheel or a lookout?

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

“Stand to it, my hearts of gold,” said the old bowman as he passed from knot to knot.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The eggs, called nits, are even smaller - about the size of a knot in thread.

(Head Lice, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

This difference stretches and shears the bright knots, producing light and dark lanes in the disk.

(NASA Visualization Shows a Black Hole’s Warped World, NASA)

But this time, before he dozed again, he tied a burning pine-knot to his right hand.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Her hair she had the sense to let alone, after gathering up the thick waves and curls into a Hebe-like knot at the back of her head.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)