Meaning of Knot | Babel Free

Definitions

1. One of a variety of shore birds; red-breasted sandpiper (variously Calidris canutus or Tringa canutus).
2. 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.
3. A tangled clump of hair or similar.
4. A maze-like pattern.
5. A non-self-intersecting closed curve in (e.g., three-dimensional) space that is an abstraction of a knot (in sense 1 above).
6. A difficult situation.
7. The whorl left in lumber by the base of a branch growing out of the tree's trunk.
8. Local swelling in a tissue area, especially skin, often due to injury.
9. A tightened and contracted part of a muscle that feels like a hard lump under the skin.
10. A protuberant joint in a plant.
11. Any knob, lump, swelling, or protuberance.
12. The swelling of the bulbus glandis in members of the dog family, Canidae.
13. The point on which the action of a story depends; the gist of a matter.
14. A node (point at which the lines of a funicular machine meet from different angular directions)
15. A kind of epaulet; a shoulder knot.
16. A group of people or things.
17. A bond of union; a connection; a tie.
18. A unit of speed, equal to one nautical mile per hour.
19. A unit of indicated airspeed, calibrated airspeed, or equivalent airspeed, which varies in its relation to the unit of speed so as to compensate for the effects of different ambient atmospheric conditions on aircraft performance.
20. A nautical mile.
21. The bulbus glandis.
    slang

Equivalents

Examples

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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, […]”

“the knot of the tale”

“his ancient knot of dangerous adversarie”

“As they sat together in small, separate knots, they discussed doctrinal and metaphysical points of belief.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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 […]”

“[I]t were very fit, […] to observe carefully this previous betrothing of ourselves, ere we knit the knot that can never be loosed.”

“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.”

“Cedric claimed his old yacht could make 12 knots.”

“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.”

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

CEFR level