knot

1. 1

   A looping of a piece of string or of any other long, flexible material that cannot be untangled without passing one or both ends of the material through its loops.

   • Climbers must make sure that all knots are both secure and of types that will not weaken the rope.
2. 2

   A tangled clump of hair or similar.

   • The nurse was brushing knots from the protesting child's hair.
3. 3

   A maze-like pattern.

   • 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.
4. 4

   A non-self-intersecting closed curve in (e.g., three-dimensional) space that is an abstraction of a knot (in sense 1 above).

   • 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.
5. 5

   A difficult situation.

   • I got into a knot when I inadvertently insulted a policeman.
6. 6

   The whorl left in lumber by the base of a branch growing out of the tree's trunk.

   • 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.
7. 7

   Local swelling in a tissue area, especially skin, often due to injury.

   • Jeremy had a knot on his head where he had bumped it on the bedframe.
8. 8

   A tightened and contracted part of a muscle that feels like a hard lump under the skin.

9. 9

   A protuberant joint in a plant.

10. 10

    Any knob, lump, swelling, or protuberance.

    • [T]he Queen who sat / With lips severely placid, felt the knot / Climb in her throat, […]

1. 1

   To form into a knot; to tie with a knot or knots.transitive

   • We knotted the ends of the rope to keep it from unravelling.
2. 2

   To form wrinkles in the forehead, as a sign of concentration, concern, surprise, etc.transitive

   • She knotted her brow in concentration while attempting to unravel the tangled strands.
3. 3

   To unite closely; to knit together.

   • The party of the papists in England are become more knotted, both in dependence towards Spain, and amongst themselves.
4. 4

   To entangle or perplex; to puzzle.obsoleteraretransitive

5. 5

   To form knots.intransitive

6. 6

   To knit knots for a fringe.intransitive

syn. join · put together · flummox

ant. loosen · unbind · unknot · untie

1. 1

   One of a variety of shore birds; red-breasted sandpiper (variously Calidris canutus or Tringa canutus).

   • My foot-boy shall eat pheasants, calvered salmons, / Knots, godwits, lampreys: I myself will have / The beards of barbels, served instead of salads […]