knot

noun knots

1. 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. Climbers must make sure that all knots are both secure and of types that will not weaken the rope.
2. A tangled clump of hair or similar. The nurse was brushing knots from the protesting child's hair.
3. A maze-like pattern. 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.
4. A non-self-intersecting closed curve in (e.g., three-dimensional) space that is an abstraction of a knot (in sense 1 above). 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.
5. A difficult situation. I got into a knot when I inadvertently insulted a policeman.
6. The whorl left in lumber by the base of a branch growing out of the tree's trunk. 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.
7. Local swelling in a tissue area, especially skin, often due to injury. Jeremy had a knot on his head where he had bumped it on the bedframe.
8. A tightened and contracted part of a muscle that feels like a hard lump under the skin.
9. A protuberant joint in a plant.
10. Any knob, lump, swelling, or protuberance. [T]he Queen who sat / With lips severely placid, felt the knot / Climb in her throat, […]
11. The swelling of the bulbus glandis in members of the dog family, Canidae.
12. The point on which the action of a story depends; the gist of a matter. the knot of the tale
13. A node (point at which the lines of a funicular machine meet from different angular directions)
14. A kind of epaulet; a shoulder knot.
15. A group of people or things. his ancient knot of dangerous adversarie
16. A bond of union; a connection; a tie. [I come] to crave a league of amity, And lastly, to confirm that amity With nuptial knot […]
17. A unit of speed, equal to one nautical mile per hour. Cedric claimed his old yacht could make 12 knots.
18. 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. 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.
19. A nautical mile.
20. slang The bulbus glandis.
21. collective A group of snakes, intertwined. Male snakes are expected to return from hunting in September, at which point it’s expected the massive knot of snakes will hibernate and the feed will go dormant until spring.

verb knots · knotting · knotted

1. transitive To form into a knot; to tie with a knot or knots. We knotted the ends of the rope to keep it from unravelling.
2. transitive To form wrinkles in the forehead, as a sign of concentration, concern, surprise, etc. She knotted her brow in concentration while attempting to unravel the tangled strands.
3. To unite closely; to knit together. The party of the papists in England are become more knotted, both in dependence towards Spain, and amongst themselves.
4. obsolete, rare, transitive To entangle or perplex; to puzzle.
5. intransitive To form knots.
6. intransitive To knit knots for a fringe.

Similar: join, put together, flummox

noun knots · knot

1. One of a variety of shore birds; red-breasted sandpiper (variously Calidris canutus or Tringa canutus). My foot-boy shall eat pheasants, calvered salmons, / Knots, godwits, lampreys: I myself will have / The beards of barbels, served instead of salads […]