knuckle

Meanings

Plural: knuckles

Noun

• a joint of a finger when the fist is closed
• Any of the joints between the bones of the fingers.
• A mechanical joint.
• The curved part of the cushion at the entrance to the pockets on a cue sports table.
• The kneejoint of a quadruped, especially of a calf; formerly, the kneejoint of a human being.
• A cut of meat of various kinds.
• The joint of a plant.
• A convex portion of a vessel's figure where a sudden change of shape occurs, as in a canal boat, where a nearly vertical side joins a nearly flat bottom.
• A contrivance, usually of brass or iron, and furnished with points, worn to protect the hand, to add force to a blow, and to disfigure the person struck; a knuckle duster.
• The rounded point where a flat changes to a slope on a piste.

Verb

• press or rub with the knuckles
• shoot a marble while keeping one's knuckles on the ground
• To apply pressure, or rub or massage with one's knuckles (sense 1).
• To strike or punch.
• To bend the fingers.
• To touch one's forehead as a mark of respect.
• To yield.
• To land on the knuckle (sense 9) of a curve of a slope, after a jump off a ramp that precedes the slope.

Synonyms

knuckle joint, knuckle under, metacarpophalangeal joint