knot – English noun declension

English noun forms of knot

Noun: knot
Singularknot
Pluralknots; knot

Sample Sentences

  • Climbers must make sure that all knots are both secure and of types that will not weaken the rope.
  • The obstructive tendency attributed to the knot in spiritual matters appears in a Swiss superstition that if, in sewing a corpse into its shroud, you make a knot on the thread, it will hinder the soul of the deceased on its passage to eternity. [1911, James George Frazer, chapter V, in Taboo and the Perils of the Soul (The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion; II), third edition, London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, page 310:]
  • The nurse was brushing knots from the protesting child's hair.
  • Flowers worthy of paradise, which, not nice art / In beds and curious knots, but nature boon / Poured forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain. [1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:]
  • A knot can be defined as a non-self-intersecting broken line whose endpoints coincide: when such a knot is constrained to lie in a plane, then it is simply a polygon.
  • I got into a knot when I inadvertently insulted a policeman.
  • A man shall be perplexed with knots, and problems of business, and contrary affairs. [1664, Robert South, A Sermon Preached Before the University at Christ-Church, Oxon:]
  • When preparing to tell stories at a campfire, I like to set aside a pile of pine logs with lots of knots, since they burn brighter and make dramatic pops and cracks.
  • Jeremy had a knot on his head where he had bumped it on the bedframe.
  • [T]he Queen who sat / With lips severely placid, felt the knot / Climb in her throat, […] [1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Elaine”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 185:]
  • the knot of the tale
  • his ancient knot of dangerous adversarie [c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:]
  • As they sat together in small, separate knots, they discussed doctrinal and metaphysical points of belief. [1822, [Walter Scott], Peveril of the Peak. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC:]
  • When, for instance, he saw a knot of the ruffians on the prairie, discussing, of course, the single topic which then occupied their minds, he would, perhaps, take his compass and one of his sons, and proceed to run an imaginary line right through the very spot on which that conclave had assembled, and when he came up to them, he would naturally pause and have some talk with them, learning their news, and, at last, all their plans perfectly; and having thus completed his real survey he would resume his imaginary one, and run on his line till he was out of sight. [1859, Henry David Thoreau, A Plea for Captain John Brown:]
  • The garden was bounded by a three-foot brick wall with a fringe of wood rails upon the top, and against this wall was leaning a stalwart police constable, surrounded by a small knot of loafers, who craned their necks and strained their eyes in the vain hope of catching some glimpse of the proceedings within. [1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet, page 39:]
  • In the interval between Sunday School and Church when the congregation stretched its legs, I saw Atticus standing in the yard with another knot of men. [1960 July 11, Harper Lee, chapter 15, in To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC:]
  • At corners, under the lights, near drugstores, small knots of white, bright, chattering people showed teeth to each other, pawed each other, whistled for taxis, were whirled away in them, vanished through the doors of drugstores or into the blackness of side streets. [1962, James Baldwin, Another Country, New York, N. Y.: The Dial Press, published January 1963, page 4:]
  • 1968, Bryce Walton, Harpoon Gunner, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, NY, (1968), page 20,
  • He pushed through knots of whalemen grouped with their families and friends, and surrounded by piles of luggage.
  • [I come] to crave a league of amity,
  • And lastly, to confirm that amity
  • With nuptial knot […] [c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:]
  • [I]t were very fit, […] to observe carefully this previous betrothing of ourselves, ere we knit the knot that can never be loosed. [1646, Jos[eph] Hall, The Balme of Gilead: Or, Comforts for the Distressed, both Morall and Divine. […], London: […] M[iles] Flesher, for Nat[haniel] Butter, →OCLC:]
  • Indeed I would advise every ſingle lady, if poſſible, to attend her inamorato, pretty frequently at the card table; […] if he is haſty or pettiſh with any one else in company, she may depend on the ſame fate when once the knot is tied. [1795, Joseph Addison, “An Essay on Card-playing”, in Interesting Anecdotes, Memoirs, Allegories, Essays, and Poetical Fragments; Tending to Amuse the Fancy, and Inculcate Morality, page 67:]
  • Cedric claimed his old yacht could make 12 knots.
  • Here in Franklin Bay during our first season we hurtle along at 20 knots, dodging ice floes littering the surface. [1989 May, Jeff MacInnis, “Braving the Northwest Passage”, in National Geographic, volume 175, number 5, page 588:]
  • In the early stages of reentry, due to the extremely-rarefied air at these altitudes, the space shuttle flew at only one to a few knots equivalent airspeed, even when its actual speed was many thousands of knots.
  • Male snakes are expected to return from hunting in September, at which point it’s expected the massive knot of snakes will hibernate and the feed will go dormant until spring. [July 17, 2024, Adam Kovac, “Livestream Offers a Close-Up View of Thousands of Rattlesnakes in a ‘Mega Den’”, in Gizmodo:]
  • I have only once come across the spectacular sight of a tightly packed knot of adders sleeping together when my dogs disturbed earth under rocks on a south-facing hillside in Glen Lyon. [(Can we date this quote?), Polly Pullar, Poisonous Reputation, Scottish Field, page 107:]

Etymology

1. From Middle English knotte, from Old English cnotta, from Proto-West Germanic *knottō, from Proto-Germanic *knuttô, *knudô (“knot”); probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gnod- (“to bind”).
2. See also Old High German knoto (German Knoten, Dutch knot, Low German Knütte; also Old Norse knútr > Danish knude, Swedish knut, Norwegian knute, Faroese knútur, Icelandic hnútur; also Latin nōdus and its Romance descendants. Doublet of knout, node, and nodus.
3. * (unit of speed): From the practice of counting the number of knots in the logline (as it is paid out) in a standard time. Traditionally spaced at one every ¹⁄₁₂₀ of a mile. See: Middle English Nouns 'knotte', Old English Nouns 'cnotta', German Nouns 'Knoten', Dutch Nouns 'knot', Old Norse Nouns 'knútr', Danish Nouns 'knude', Swedish Nouns 'knut', Faroese Nouns 'knútur', Icelandic Nouns 'hnútur', Latin Nouns 'nōdus'.

Verbs referencing "knot"

English Nouns connect, Dutch Nouns knot, German Nouns Knoten, Latin Nouns nodus, Galician Nouns nó, Irish Nouns cnota, Swedish Nouns nystan, Ukrainian Nouns ґніт, Belarusan Nouns кнот.