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knuckle

/ˈnʌkəl/
/ˈnʌkəl/
IPA guide

Other forms: knuckles; knuckled; knuckling

Your knuckles are the joints in your fingers that are farthest from your fingernails. When you clench your hand into a fist, your knuckles are especially prominent.

A knuckle is the part of your hand that makes it possible to move a finger freely, and if someone offers you a "knuckle sandwich," you should politely decline, since they're actually planning to make a fist and punch you in the mouth. To knuckle is to rub with the knuckles, like when you knuckle a bit of sand out of your eye. The root of knuckle is the Proto-Germanic knuk-, "bone."

Definitions of knuckle
  1. noun
    a joint of a finger when the fist is closed
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    type of:
    articulatio synovialis, diarthrosis, synovial joint
    a joint so articulated as to move freely
  2. verb
    press or rub with the knuckles
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    type of:
    press
    exert pressure or force to or upon
  3. verb
    shoot a marble while keeping one's knuckles on the ground
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    type of:
    shoot
    throw or propel in a specific direction or towards a specific objective
Pronunciation
US
/ˈnʌkəl/
UK
/ˈnʌkəl/
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