Definition of "knuckle" in English

noun

1. Any of the joints between the bones of the fingers.

2. (by extension) A mechanical joint.

3. (sports, billiards, snooker, pool) The curved part of the cushion at the entrance to the pockets on a cue sports table.

4. The kneejoint of a quadruped, especially of a calf; formerly, the kneejoint of a human being.

5. A cut of meat of various kinds.

   • Beef knuckle is from the knee joint. Pork knuckle, or ham hock, is from the joint between the tibia/fibula and the metatarsals of the foot of a pig, where the foot was attached to the leg.

6. (obsolete) The joint of a plant.

7. (shipbuilding) 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.

8. 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.

   • brass knuckles

9. (skiing, snowboarding) The rounded point where a flat changes to a slope on a piste.

verb

1. (transitive) To apply pressure, or rub or massage with one's knuckles (noun, sense 1).

   • He knuckled the sleep from his eyes.

2. (transitive, slang) To strike or punch.

3. (intransitive) To bend the fingers.

4. (intransitive) To touch one's forehead as a mark of respect.

5. (intransitive, figurative) To yield.

6. (snowboarding, skiing) To land on the knuckle (noun, sense 9) of a curve of a slope, after a jump off a ramp that precedes the slope.