knee

Pluralknees

Formsknees, kneeing, kneed

1. 1
   nouncountable

   The joint or surrounding area in the middle of the human leg, between the thigh and the lower leg.

   The surgeon replaced her worn knee with an artificial joint.

   He twisted his knee while skiing and needed crutches for weeks.

   Note

   The sense every other one bends from: Old English cnēow, kin to German Knie, Dutch knie and Danish knæ. The plural is knees; an older kneen survives only as an obsolete dialect form. Kneeling has long made the joint a sign of submission. Spenser forces a knight to stoop "unto his knee" in worship, and Star Trek: The Next Generation (1988) urges a hearer to "get off your knees and soar."

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To poke or strike someone or something with the knee.

   The wrestler kneed his opponent in the ribs during the clinch.

   Fighters often knee their rivals when grappling at close range.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   The section of a garment that covers the knee.

   The tailor reinforced the knee of the work pants with extra fabric.

   Both knees of his old corduroys had faded to a pale gray.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A blow delivered with the knee.

   A well-timed knee to the thigh can disable an attacker.

   The referee warned him after an illegal knee during the clinch.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A sharp angle or bend in a line, or any knee-shaped object; the point where a curve abruptly changes direction.

   Engineers placed a knee in the ductwork to route it around the beam.

   The performance curve shows a distinct knee beyond which speed no longer improves.

   Similarbend, elbow, kink, angle

6. 6
   nouncountable

   In horses and related animals, the carpal joint of the foreleg, corresponding to the wrist in humans.

   The trainer wrapped the racehorse's knee to support the joint.

   Swelling in a horse's knee can signal a serious tendon problem.

7. 7
   nounfiguratively

   A parent's or elder's presence, viewed as the setting where a young child gains earliest knowledge.

   At her mother's knee she absorbed the customs of the village.

   Many craftsmen first learned the trade at a father's knee.

   Similarside

   Note

   A figure drawn from a small child seated by a parent, and nearly always met as a fixed phrase: at one's mother's knee, at one's father's knee. It pairs naturally with learn and teach. Time (1978) speaks of a duty "taught at one's father's knee," and Brian Douglas (2015) has Pusey learning his faith at his mother's knee. The possessive is part of the phrase and is not dropped.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   In birds, the tarsal joint of the leg, which actually corresponds to the human ankle rather than the human knee.

   What looks like a backward-bending knee on a flamingo is really its ankle joint.

   The stork tucked one leg up until its knee nearly touched its body.

   Note

   A birdwatcher's name, not an anatomist's. It names the joint people see bending "backward" halfway down a bird's leg. Specialists call it the tarsal joint and keep knee for the joint hidden higher up. In casual description the everyday name is fine. In anatomical writing it invites confusion, so name the joint precisely instead.

9. 9
   nouncountable

   In birds, the joint between the femur and the tibiotarsus, usually concealed beneath the plumage high on the leg.

   The ostrich's actual knee lies close to the body, hidden under its feathers.

   Anatomy guides place the bird's knee far higher than people expect.

10. 10
    nouncountable

    A piece of timber or metal formed with an angle that resembles a bent human knee.

    Carpenters fitted an oak knee to strengthen the joint between frame and beam.

    The old schooner's hull was held together by iron knees.

    Similarbracket, brace

    Note

    A shipwright's word for an angled brace that locks two timbers together where they meet. Builders speak of hanging knees, triangular pieces set beneath a deck beam to carry it. Richard W. Unger's The Ship in the Medieval Economy 600-1600 (1980) describes hulls where such knees sat above the beams instead. The name is borrowed straight from the bent leg.

11. 11
    verbreflexiveintransitive

    To move along using the knees rather than the feet.

    Penitents knee toward the altar as an act of devotion.

    He kneed his way across the muddy trench, keeping his head low.

    Similarcrawl, creep, shuffle

    Note

    A verb of crawling that takes a reflexive pronoun and a direction word. Anthony Burgess, in Beds in the East (1959), has Hassan knee "himself up, over, in" without a sound. Its looser relative is knee one's way across or toward something. Either way, the direction word does the work: it says where the knees are carrying the body.

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